Diabetes: Healthy diet and exercise play a significant role in controlling blood sugar levels
The diagnosis of diabetes brings with it, profound changes in one's lifestyle. In fact, it often leads to initial fear and sometimes even to depression when one is told that one has diabetes. Immediately one begins to think, 'Does this mean that I cannot have those sweets ever again? Will I have to start jogging every day? Will my lifestyle be completely changed because of diabetes?'
Diabetes is of several types particularly in children, adolescents and young adults. Type-1 diabetes is a condition where there is a total lack of insulin production from the pancreatic beta cells which means that these individuals have to take lifelong insulin injections. This would also mean that they have to eat in time, once they have had the insulin injections. If not, they can develop low sugar reactions or hypoglycaemia. They would also need to be careful about their exercise as sometimes the blood sugar levels can drop an hour or two after exercise. Hence, a careful balance of the calories consumed, the calories burnt and the insulin doses injected would be necessary for the rest of their life.
In the case of type-2 diabetes, things are a little easier. Normally, type-2 diabetes, particularly in youngsters is associated with overweight or obesity. Hence, the priority for somebody with type-2 diabetes, would be to reduce weight by diet and exercise.
Excess carbohydrates, (e.g. polished white rice and refined wheat) are one of the main reasons for getting diabetes in our country. It therefore makes perfect sense that once diabetes is diagnosed, the amount of carbohydrates, particularly rice and wheat are reduced. This can be replaced with adequate amounts of green leafy vegetables, some fruit and adequate protein and fibre intake. For non-vegetarians, increasing protein intake is relatively easy because one can take fish, chicken and egg white. For vegetarians, one has to get proteins from legumes and pulses like bengal gram, green gram, black gram, mushroom, milk, soya, tofu, paneer etc.
In addition, healthy fats can be taken. Mono-unsaturated fats are the best type of fats to consume and this comes from olive oil, corn oil, gingelly oil, groundnut oil and mustard oil. Poly-unsaturated fats like safflower oil or sunflower oil are also ok, while the saturated fats like palm oil or coconut oil are best avoided. Trans-fats, which are found in bakery products, biscuits and deep fried items are best avoided, as they can lead to elevation of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) levels and also increase the risk of heart attacks.
The intensity of physical exercise can be decided depending on the age and fitness level of the individual. Half an hour walk of walking would be the minimum, eventually going up to 45 minutes or one hour. While doing exercise it is important to remember the FAR principle. FAR stands for Flexibility, Aerobic exercise and Resistance training. Flexibility is increased by doing stretching exercises. Aerobic exercises include walking, jogging, swimming, cycling etc. In addition, Resistance training, can help to improve the muscle function both in the upper limbs and lower limbs as well as the chest muscles is also very good and this is achieved by using light weights. Apart from this, reduction in stress and anxiety through pranayama, meditation, yoga and by participating in games, sports, music etc is also important.
Exercise regularly to fight complications linked with diabetes
In summary, irrespective of the type of diabetes one has, lifestyle changes form the cornerstone of treatment of all forms of diabetes. It is fair to state that if intensive lifestyle modification leading to significant weight loss is done, even reversal of diabetes may be possible in early stages of the disorder. At the very least it would help to reduce the dose of anti-diabetic drugs, control diabetes better and in the long run, prevent its dreaded complications. The time to act is now!
(Dr. V. Mohan is Head of MDRF-Hinduja Foundation T1D program and also Chairman & Chief of Diabetology, Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre & President, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, India)
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