We observed World Diabetes Day on November 14. This day is celebrated to create global awareness regarding this deadly disease, in order to discuss its complications and prevention. This year, the theme was ‘family and diabetes.’ Basically, it was about creating consciousness on how diabetes not only affects an individual, but the whole family. Family also plays an important role in the management, prevention and taking care of a diabetic individual.
Let’s look at diabetes very closely. It involves a hormone insulin. We think that insulin’s only function in our body is to lower sugars, but it also storing to using fat and energy in the right way. So, if the focus from insulin is shifted, what causes the increased sugar levels or Type 2 diabetes, to be precise?
Now, it’s said that breads causes diabetes, but is that true? Many people grew up eating white bread in the form of pav or multigrain breads. We have many elderly people still having that, and without diabetes. It’s not the bread, but the lifestyle that is responsible. We have become more sedentary when compared to our elders, and we reach out for comfort food. More processed food and junk has taken the place of balanced meals that we ate as children. We should focus on a complete makeover of our lifestyles and eat what we ate while growing up. It’s not the bread that is making us sick, but overdoing it is harmful.
The way flours are processed these days is a big hoax. Maida comes from wheat, wherein the kernel, bran and the wheat germ is lost while processing – these are what have all the fibre, minerals and vitamins. After this, you get wheat flour, which is further processed with chemicals like bleach and other things that mess up our pancreatic functions. The pancreas produces insulin in our body, and if it doesn’t function well, the insulin production is hampered, and we end up having high sugar levels.
You can take medicines or insulin to keep it under control, but what is going to help you more than anything else, is avoiding the foods that are destroying your pancreas. Avoid white processed bread, white processed sugar and white processed salt, because all of these use chemicals very similar to chlorine bleach.
A sedentary lifestyle is often associated with hyperinsulinemia (increased insulin in blood), which automatically decreases insulin receptors, making our body insulin-resistant. Since the cells become insulin resistant, they can’t uptake glucose, and thus, the blood glucose level starts rising, causing hyper-glycaemia.
If not taken care of, it will turn into diabetes. Too much insulin in the blood also decreases the excretion of sodium by the kidneys. The sodium that is not excreted will stack up in the blood, and also absorb more water. Too much water retention causes edema. This will put pressure on your heart, causing increased blood pressure, and result in hypertension. Next week, we shall look into food options and healthy tips to keep your sugar levels in check.