5 Healthy-Diet Plans to Fight Diabetes

Do you have diabetes? If you don’t, you probably know someone who does. That’s because it’s one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in America.

In the U.S., an estimated 34 million people have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 in 5, don’t even know they have it. But another 88 million people have pre-diabetes, and most don’t know it yet either.

Left unchecked, diabetes can lead to:

• Heart disease
• Kidney damage
• Stroke
• Poor circulation
• Vision loss
• Amputations
• Or worse (it’s among the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.)

Sounds pretty bad, right? Here’s the crazy thing. Diabetes is largely preventable and reversible, with smart lifestyle habits, like:

• Maintain a healthy weight, or lose weight if you need to
• Get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day
• Don’t smoke, or quit if you do
• Take medication to control blood sugar levels, along with healthy lifestyle habits
• Follow a healthy diet

Wondering what a healthy diet looks like to prevent or control diabetes? The top 5 diets that can help you prevent or manage diabetes all have a few things in common:

1. The Mediterranean Diet. This diabetic-friendly and heart healthy diet is based on eating primarily fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, foods cooked in olive oil, and red wine.
2. The DASH Diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It was originally designed to help people control blood pressure. But it’s an effective eating plan to control diabetes too. Here’s what you’ll mainly eat on the DASH Diet: fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and some whole grains, fish, poultry and nuts.
3. The Flexitarian Diet. There’s ample research that suggests eating meat and poultry raises the risk for diabetes. But what if you’re not ready to give up meat yet? The Flexitarian Diet may be a good fit. You’ll eat like a vegetarian most of the time (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and legumes). But a burger, steak, or chicken won’t be off limits.
4. The Mayo Clinic Diet. If you want to lose weight, improve your overall health, and cut your risk for diabetes, the Mayo Clinic Diet works. Much like the other diets on this list, there’s an emphasis on eating whole foods (fruits, vegetables, and whole grains). But exercise is also a requirement, which helps prevent diabetes, too.
5. The Vegan Diet: If you really want to lower your risk for diabetes, or maybe even reverse diabetes, an all plant-based diet is one of the best ways to make it happen.

If you want to simply start eating healthier to improve your health and prevent diabetes, check out the complete selection of MagicKitchen.com meals, all made from fresh ingredients and ready to eat in minutes.