Another new study just came out saying what we have known for the longest time. The study published in the Lancet talks about how diabetes can be reduced and eliminated with proper diet and exercise. The study showed how diet and exercise works better than the most popular diabetes drug. Unfortunately most people don’t get that message clearly from their health care provider.

With over 24 million people diagnosed with diabetes and another 57 million people struggling with excessively high blood sugar…an epidemic is coming along with all the other complications that come from diabetes including heart disease, blindness and loss of sensation in our hands and feet.

To simply tell someone to lose weight and get some exercise is like telling someone to be happy. Weight loss can be achieved by cutting out all those sugary foods and drinks that so many people unknowingly eat. Keep in mind you don’t have to eat sweets to cause your blood sugar to skyrocket. That is probably the biggest mistake I see from all my patients who are struggling with their weight and blood sugar…is that they think, they haven’t eaten any sweets so they are doing good.

It’s not so much the sweets and desserts we are talking about. What really causes problems for so many people is their choices of processed, refined foods made with white flour and white sugar. You can find these processed foods in pizza, hamburgers, sandwiches, pancakes, bagels, cookies and pastas which are the favorite fast food choices of the masses.

If we could get people away from all these processed white flours and white sugars that are staples in so many of our foods we would be able to better control or limit how high our blood sugar soars. This is important because the more your blood sugar skyrockets up and down throughout the day the more insulin your produce, which triggers your body to store fats. That’s what contributes to the weight gain.

When we keep our blood sugar stable by eating foods made in their most natural form, it is much easier to keep our weight, cravings and moods under control. When our blood sugar is up and down all day, it takes us out of our fat burning mode. It’s not so much a matter of low carbs…it is Slow Carbs.

Fruits and veggies are loaded with carbohydrates and are needed to keep our metabolism functioning properly. So don’t throw out the baby with the bath water and think that all carbs are bad for you. You just need to make sure you are eating the right ones and stay away from as much of the processed carbs as possible.

One more thing – add some stress into your life…and see how much more it causes your blood sugar to fall and rise. All the cortisol and adrenaline your body makes in response to stress also effects your blood sugar and can throw off a lot of the benefits of a good diet. So make sure you are watching or measuring your stress hormones to see if that is another contributing factor to your weight, diabetes, cravings, mood swings and energy levels. The simple first step is to take the Stress Test and see if that is part of the problem. You should also Test Your Metabolism to make sure you are keeping your blood sugar stable.  If you want to get more accurate with concrete testing you can do the 24 Hour Saliva Test to accurately measure how stress is impacting your life.