What are the key points in diabetes prevention?

The core is actually to protect the function of pancreatic islets and maintain insulin sensitivity. To put it bluntly, it is to prevent the body's blood sugar regulation mechanism from being overloaded for a long time. It is not as simple as "not eating sugar at all" as many people think.

Not long ago, when I was helping at a community chronic disease management post, I met a 32-year-old Internet operation and maintenance man. The young man usually doesn't drink milk tea or eat cakes. He rarely even touches cola. During the physical examination, his fasting blood sugar crossed the critical line of 6.1mmol/L. I was confused for a long time with the report, saying how could he still have high blood sugar even though he didn't touch any sugar. Upon further questioning, I found out that he ate two bowls of white rice every meal and ate the takeout rice bowl with vegetable soup. He sat at his workstation for at least 12 hours a day and watched the monitor. He was so paralyzed after get off work that he didn't even bother to get off the stairs. Calculating the amount of carbohydrates he ate every day, his blood sugar level was at a high level for a long time, and his pancreatic islets were so tired that they could no longer rotate.

It’s quite interesting to talk about. Nowadays, there are many misunderstandings about diabetes prevention, and related controversies have never stopped. For example, some people say that as long as you exercise enough every day and eat whatever you want, you will not get diabetes. There are indeed studies that prove that people with long-term high muscle mass have higher insulin sensitivity, and occasional high sugar intake can be quickly metabolized. However, there are also clinical cases that show that if you overeat, even if you go to the gym every day, the long-term high load of insulin secretion will slowly wear down the pancreatic islet function, but the onset time will be later than in people who sit for a long time. Some people still argue whether it is more important to control total calories or glycemic index. In fact, both sides are supported by solid clinical data. If you usually like to calculate calories and can accurately caloric, it is okay to eat a piece of your favorite cheesecake occasionally. If you find it troublesome to calculate calories, replacing more refined rice noodles with whole grains and drinking less sweet drinks can also have a very good preventive effect. There is no need to fight over this problem.

Just treat the islet as your working partner. You always let it spin 996. Sooner or later, it will catch fish or even go on strike. You usually let it combine work and rest, and just throw in a bunch of urgent tasks that suddenly appear - the kind of behavior that suddenly spikes blood sugar, such as drinking a bottle of iced Coke in one breath, eating refined carbohydrates every day, and it will work well for many years.

When we educate community residents on science, we don’t ask them to give up sugar directly. We just remind them that when eating white rice, add more green leafy vegetables and high-quality proteins such as eggs and lean meat, which will slow down the rise of blood sugar. Don’t slump on the sofa immediately after eating. Stand for ten minutes to check your phone or go downstairs for two steps. Your blood sugar can be stabilized after a meal. These little habits are much more reliable than forcing yourself not to eat your favorite desserts at all, and easier to stick to. After all, prevention is a lifelong matter, and you can't live the life of an ascetic all the time, right?