ta. "If you stay lean and fit, you reduce your chances of developing type 2 diabetes by 90%." Even if you've been diagnosed with diabetes, research shows that improving diet and exercise can help prevent complications, lower the dosage of drugs or even eliminate the need for them altogether.
Your Diabetes Prevention Plan
Know what the right-size portions look like Almost any restaurant or takeout dish is double or triple what you should be eating in one meal. And we do so much buying in bulk that every now and then we need a refresher on what one serving really looks like. A quick guide: One serving of meat, chicken or fish is the size of your palm; of rice and pasta, about the size of a baseball; of oils and butter, about the tip of your thumb.
Eat "real" food Load up on what you find in nature: fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, lean protein and lowfat dairy products. One study showed that for every additional two servings of whole grains women ate a day, their risk of developing type 2 diabetes went down 21%. Other research has found that middle-age women who ate the most dairy also had a 21% lower risk of developing diabetes than those who ate the least.
Don't drink your calories The sugar from juice and soda is so concentrated that it enters your bloodstream immediately and your body has to produce a quick burst of insulin to deal with it, explains Dr. Kaufman. If you prompt your body to do this frequently, it can lead to weight gain and increase your risk of becoming insulin-resistant (your body will start to need extra insulin, a hormone that maintains normal blood sugar levels in the body). This in turn may lead to diabetes. Cap the amount of juice everyone in the family drinks at no more than 1 cup daily; better yet, dilute it with water or club soda.
Take a 30-minute walk every day Besides helping you stay at a healthy weight, regular physical activity—such as walking, jogging, biking, swimming—helps your body use insulin better. And you can break it up into two or three sessions: One study found that people who racked up 30 minutes of moderate activity five times a week have a much lower risk of the disease than those who don't exercise regularly. Get everyone moving by scheduling a nightly after-dinner family walk.
Make sleep a priority "Inadequate sleep reduces your body's ability to produce and respond to insulin, which may contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes," Dr. Albright says. One study found that people who regularly slept five or fewer hours a night were almost twice as likely to develop diabetes than those who slept seven hours a night. Quality counts too, so if you think you're sleeping enough but are still tired, get screened for apnea, sleep-disordered breathing and restless leg syndrome. Each of these has been linked with impaired glucose tolerance, a pre-diabetic condition.
Unwind for at least 10 minutes a day Stress is unavoidable; it's how you deal with it that makes the difference. "Chronic stress can trigger inflammation in the body, which may lead to insulin resistance and raise diabetes risk," says David Nathan, MD, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a professor of medicine at Harvard. If you make decompressing a daily habit, your body won't be as damaged by stress when it hits.
Lose weight if your BMI is too high Excess weight can lead to chemical changes that increase diabetes risk as well as cause inflammation, says Dr. Nathan. Ideally your BMI should fall in the normal range (under 25), but even losing 5 to 7% of your weight—which translates to 10 to 15 pounds for someone who weighs 200 pounds—can dramatically reduce your risk of developing diabetes, according to the Diabetes Prevention Program.
"I stopped diabetes in its tracks"
Lisa Schaffer, 22, senior at Penn State University
When I was 16, my periods disappeared and didn't come back for more than a year. I also started feeling hungrier than usual and became much more muscular. My doctor wasn't concerned—he said these symptoms were probably cropping up because I