Diabetes Care Durham: Preventing Diabetes: How Can a Healthy Diet Help?

By:  Todd Palmer

Diabetes Care Durham:  Diabetes is a disease that affects a large number of seniors. Both dangerous and difficult to manage in some cases, diabetes is actually, in various situations, a preventable condition. Jerry of Durham, North Carolina, did a bit of research into the prevention of diabetes when his father was warned by his doctor of his pre-diabetic state. In digging up information to help his father improve his health, Jerry discovered that the right diet can actually assist the body in warding off the development of this illness.

Here are some of the highlights of Jerry's research to help you in assisting your elderly loved one in creating a meal plan that will prevent diabetes:[1]

1. Increase the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (as opposed to simple carbohydrates).
2. Maintain a positive attitude by focusing on the healthy foods that improve wellbeing, rather than the junk foods that aren't on the meal plan any longer.
3. Turn to lean meats, like chicken and turkey, instead of red meats.
4. Skip sweets, such as sodas, cookies, and other unhealthy snack foods.
5. Plan weekly menus to make shopping and cooking easier, which will allow seniors to better stick to their diet.
6. Stock up on healthy essentials, such as brown rice and whole grain crackers, to ensure that there is always access to foods that will stave off diabetes.
7. Reduce the intake of both sodium and sugar by adding less of these substances to meals. Additionally, choosing canned goods that do not have these substances in additional quantities is a great idea.
8. Encourage healthy snacks, such as fresh fruits and salads.
9. When eating out, order foods that are grilled instead of fried. Additionally, ordering sauces on the side is a wonderful way to better control the sugars, calories, and carbohydrates that are consumed.

Jerry understands that maintaining a diet that prevents diabetes is not always easy; however, he and his father have worked on incorporating these ideas into their diets and both have found that they feel healthier and have lowered their risk for this disease. By introducing your elderly loved one to these tips and helping them to implement these tricks, you can assist them in reducing the odds that they develop diabetes. 


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[1] http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/checkup-america/healthy-eating.html