There are five simple ways that could prevent you from developing full-blown diabetes. Dr Eric Berg took to his YouTube channel to warn of mechanisms that lay the harmful groundwork for diabetes and explained how to stop them in their tracks.
Speaking in the video, he said: “There’s something that happens before prediabetes that you need to know about and that is a condition known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a condition where your body is putting up resistance against too much insulin because there are too many carbs in the diet.”
When you are consuming too much sugar, the insulin resistance is created to protect you against the toxicity of glucose. He continued: “Too much glucose to the body is poisonous, so the body has to protect that by shutting down the receptors because insulin regulates glucose.
“Insulin allows glucose to be absorbed. If we can shut down these receptors, we can decrease the amount of sugar that goes into the cells. If someone has insulin resistance, which too many people do, all that means is that you’re eating too many carbs. And your body is trying to protect itself against too much sugar.”
Worryingly, Dr Berg warned that this is never tested. When you get your bloods done, doctors usually check for your blood sugar levels but not insulin.
He said: “If they don’t check the insulin, they are going to miss it because this insulin resistance will keep your blood sugar levels looking normal for a period of time until you hit prediabetes.”
Fortunately, the doctor said that the solution is “obvious” – you need to cut the carbs out of your diet.
However, he also recommended four other lifestyle tweaks that could stop prediabetes turning into diabetes.
Five ways of preventing diabetes
1. Replace the carbs with fat and protein
The doctor explained that this dietary hack is “instantly” going to take the pressure off your pancreas. “If you don’t eat carbs, you give it a chance to rest,” Dr Berg added.
2. Intermittent fasting
Another thing the doctor recommended is not eating so frequently. Instead, he recommended trying an intermittent fasting programme.
With intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time. The popular approach requires you to not eat for a period of time each day or week.
If you combine the first two hacks, Dr Berg said it’s going to get “really easy”. He added: “Your appetite is going to go away. You start feeling better right off the bat and you’ll produce some pancreatic relief.”
3. Eat vegetables packed with antioxidants
Furthermore, he recommended focusing on high-quality, antioxidant foods like low-starch vegetables.
Dr Berg said: “Because those antioxidants will at least help protect against the collateral damage of all that sugar. So even though you’re diabetic, you can at least minimise the complications and the side effects just by eating healthier even if you didn’t change the amount of sugar in the diet.”
4. Take vitamin supplements
The doctor explained that when you have a lot of glucose in your blood and you have insulin resistance, you’re going to waste a lot of nutrients through your urine. You can lose the likes of chromium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin B1, and zinc.
He said: “You’re going to be deficient in these nutrients. The very things that are actually protecting you against developing insulin resistance and diabetes are going to be gone. So, you’ve lost these protective factors.
“If you’re diabetic or prediabetic or you have insulin resistance, it’s very important to start taking these supplements.”
Dr Berg noted that you can get more vitamins either from your diet or from supplements.
“This will quickly start to turn things around for you and put you in good shape and stop prediabetes from getting worse and turning into diabetes,” he added.
5. Exercise
Lastly, the doctor recommended exercising as physical movement can burn off a lot of sugar and protect your mitochondria from being damaged.
“I would definitely add the exercise into this mix so you can really turn things around and help your blood sugar,” he added.
