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Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow
Skipping the bag of chips, not buying a large chocolate bar, and adding more vegetables to dinner are all easy ways to reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.
This is according to Professor Naveed Sattar, a doctor and expert in metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who has worked on clinical trials of lifestyle changes and medications to prevent and control diabetes.
Diabetes is a serious disease that affects more than 5.6 million people in the UK and approximately 38 million in the US.
While you can’t reduce your risk of type 1 diabetes, which is caused by a malfunctioning immune system, you can reduce your chances of getting type 2 diabetes through lifestyle changes.
Here, Professor Sattar shares four simple tips he gives to patients to help them reduce their risk of diabetes.
You CAN eat chocolate…just take a smaller bar
For many, “snacking culture” is the reason for weight gain.
Eating chips, cakes and sweets between meals can add extra calories, sugar and fat to your daily intake.
Buying snacks in bulk and eating a big bag of chips or a big bar of chocolate can make it very difficult to control how much you are eating.
Professor Sattar therefore suggests opting for smaller packages and savouring the delights.
“Most people eat cakes, sweets and cookies and sometimes they need them. What they have to learn to do is try to reduce what they eat,” she said.
Professor Sattar added: “Don’t buy a whole bar of your favourite chocolate. If you can’t resist, buy smaller versions and eat them slowly.”
“For example, I eat a serving of KitKat, which has about 50 calories, I have it with a cup of tea twice a day, I savor it and I eat it very slowly. That seems to satisfy my cravings for something sweet,” he said.
Professor Sattar suggests opting for smaller packets and savoring the treats to cut down on refined sugar.
According to the latest UK figures, almost 4.3 million people had diabetes in 2021/22. And another 850,000 people have diabetes and don’t know it at all, which is worrying because untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to complications such as heart disease and stroke.
The Simple Solution: Get Rid of Sugary Drinks
Eliminating refined sugars by avoiding sweet sugary drinks could be an easy step towards reducing the risk of diabetes.
While it can be difficult to control sweet cravings, Professor Satter told MailOnline that the benefits are worth it.
“We need to learn to replace sugary drinks with low-calorie diet drinks or, better yet, water,” she said.
“It may take a little time to retrain your palate, but almost everyone can do it with a little faith.”
‘It’s an easy win because they are empty calories. Drinking full-fat Coca-Cola or Irn-Bru, whatever your drink is, you don’t need it.
Cutting out sugary drinks could be a simple way to reach your weight loss goal and therefore reduce your risk of diabetes.
A single can of full-fat Coca Cola contains 139 calories and 35g of sugar, while Diet Coke only has one calorie and 0g of sugar.
To put this in context, health chiefs recommend that adults consume no more than 30g of sugar a day, an amount equivalent to about seven sugar cubes.
Too much sugar increases the risk of excessive weight gain, which is a known risk factor for diabetes.
Therefore, eliminating sugary drinks is not only an easy way to potentially lose weight, but it can also reduce the risk of diabetes.
But it’s not just soft drinks that are to blame for hidden calories and added sugar.
Adding sugar to tea and coffee is also a slippery slope leading to weight gain and therefore a possible diabetes diagnosis, Professor Satter said.
“The same applies to adding sugar to coffee, most people with a little effort can completely eradicate sugar from their tea and coffee,” he said.
However, she acknowledged that it may take time to retrain your palate to enjoy a sugar-free drink.
‘Some people can go cold turkey and adapt, others can do it gradually and let their taste buds adjust. It takes a bit of effort at first, but you’ll start to see the benefits.
‘When I was younger I couldn’t drink tea without two sugar cubes, and now I drink tea without sugar and if you put sugar in it I find it repulsive.’
People with high waistlines, who have ever had high blood pressure, or who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The condition causes the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood to become too high, the NHS says.
“Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which excess fat accumulates in inappropriate places. Whatever the genetic potential, weight gain is the trigger. Therefore, any diet that helps maintain or stop the gain weight will help reduce the risk of diabetes,” explains Professor Sattar.
He said: ‘Once you lose weight and start doing a lot of activity, you also start building muscle, which is where you burn sugar, and then that adds to the benefit.’
“For most people, there is almost a straight line between weight gain and sugar levels,” he added.
Vegetables and salads will make you less likely to snack between meals.
According to Professor Sattar, half of our plate should consist of salad or vegetables.
‘Eat a little more fruit and add a little more salad and vegetables to your meals. If you do, those added vegetables will keep you feeling full and that means you can cut down on cakes, biscuits, sugary snacks and added pastries and crisps,’ said Professor Sattar.
She admits it’s not an easy step to make and involves the extra task of chopping vegetables or making a salad, but insists it’s a “not impossible” change.
Professor Sattar encourages his patients to try to diversify their diets and add more high-fibre plant-based foods.
“Many people simply haven’t gotten into the habit of eating salad and diversifying their diet, so you have to start slowly,” she said.
Professor Sattar suggests simply starting by adding some tomatoes to your plate, then when you get used to that, try some cucumber, before finally adding lettuce.
He said: ‘You have to gradually diversify your tastes and the things you start to enjoy. But at first you have to put in some effort.
‘Ideally, people would take a series of sustainable measures that could take six months to fully integrate.
‘Start with low goals and increase little by little, and give yourself time to develop good habits that you start to enjoy, because you have to retrain your palate to enjoy more varied foods.’
The more high-fiber plant foods you eat, the fuller you’ll feel, so you won’t need to load up your plate with chips, rice and bread, she explained.
Add fruit to add flavor to high-fiber cereals.
Switching to high-fiber cereals, such as shredded wheat, instead of popular sugary varieties, could be an easy step toward reducing your risk of diabetes.
Professor Sattar admitted that he too switched to a low-sugar breakfast to reduce his own risk of diabetes.
For him, adding a little fruit helped him not only get more fiber in his diet but also added flavor to the cereal.
He said: ‘People think it tastes like cardboard, but I like the taste and texture. “I add a little flavor by putting three or four sliced grapes.”
“A lot of people like the sweet taste, so it’s about getting used to having less of that sweet taste to satisfy the stimulus they need,” she added.
A diet rich in fiber helps maintain a healthy weight and lose extra pounds.
One reason is that it makes you feel fuller for longer and suppresses your snack cravings, Professor Sattar said.
“Fibre is not absorbed as much in the body, it’s like the lubricant for the gut and it takes the calories with it. Fibre also slows down the absorption of other things, which is fantastic,” said Professor Sattar.