Many people think that diabetes is caused from eating too many sugar-laden foods. This assumption is incorrect. Studies have found that there are five things that are linked to developing sugar diabetes – and they have nothing to do with the amount of sugar that you eat.
1. Genes. Do you have a father, mother, aunt, uncle, or grandparent that has sugar diabetes? If you do, chances are that you have the pre-disposition for developing diabetes. If you have family members with diabetes, it is critical that you pay close attention to the other four diabetes indicators so that you won’t develop diabetes.
2. Stress. Everybody has stress in his or her life. You may feel stress when you move, study for finals, or start a new job. Stress in these instances levels off and goes away. Stress is okay as long it isn’t a constant in your life. Stress is harmful if you feel it constantly.
3. Sleep. How much sleep do you get? Adults need to have between 7 and 8 hours of sleep every night. Occasionally getting less than 8 hours of sleep is not harmful. It gets detrimental if there is a consistent pattern of night after night, week in and week out of not getting enough sleep.
4. Breakfast. Do you skip breakfast? Studies have found that this is difficult on your body to skip breakfast. You have gone without food since supper on the previous day. If you don’t eat until lunch, your body is suddenly inundated with food that it needs to digest. Your body will have to produce extra amounts of insulin to take care of this surge of food after abstinence for such a long time. Wildly fluctuating demands on insulin production is hard on your pancreas.
5. Exercise. Regular exercise keeps you fit and trim. People who don’t exercise gain weight over time. Having extra weight on your body affects your body’s ability to burn calories and to produce insulin.
To help combat getting sugar diabetes, make sure you get plenty of sleep, eat breakfast, exercise regularly, and manage your stress levels.