By Terrie Johnson | Community Health & Human Services Intern
Everyone desires the delicacies of life. Eating unlimited sweets, salt, and fatty foods and lounging around without consequences seems to be the American dream! However, in reality, the lack of physical activity and healthy foods intake hardly worth the effort. That desire will slowly deteriorate once people begin to understand that the unhealthy habits they love the most, don’t really love them back.
Major components such as fat, salt, and sugar can lead to health complications. The most common health complications are diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Diabetes, specifically Type 2, is a rapidly growing global health issue. The augmented prevalence of diabetes mellitus vis-à-vis the increased obesity incidence mirrors the greater interconnectedness between diabetes and weight gain. Emphatically, obesity is associated with increased susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases (Halali et al., 2022). In 2014, more than 422 million people globally tested positive for diabetes (Halali et al., 2022). Untreated diabetes can potentially cause severe harm to an individual’s health, including the risk of kidney failure, heart attack, lower limb amputation, or death at advanced stages.
Although these are some of the most common complications, they are highly preventable. Diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure can be treated through simple lifestyle modifications that discourage sedentariness. Understanding that these health issues are manageable through simple routine adjustments is very powerful. Implementing physical activity, healthy eating habits and behavioral change can help reduce the risk of diabetes and other health issues, ultimately guaranteeing long-term positive health outcomes for everyone.
Here are more quick tips to help prevent diabetes:
- Stock up on healthy foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, and other foods that are high i. Try to minimize processed foods high in sugar, salt, and fat.
- Minimize consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (sodas, juice, etc.) and increase your water intake.
- Engage in at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily.
- Lose extra weight. Losing weight reduces the risk for diabetes
- Quit smoking. Smoking can contribute to insulin resistance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
References
Halali, F., Lapveteläinen, A., Aittola, K., Männikkö, R., Tilles-Tirkkonen, T., Järvelä-Reijonen, E., … & Karhunen, L. (2022). Associations between weight loss history and factors related to type 2 diabetes risk in the Stop Diabetes study. International Journal of Obesity, 46(5), 935-942. https://doi.org/s41366-021-01061-4
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