All About Diabetes

Every time a person opts for fast food instead of home cooked or restaurant meals, he is significantly raising his body mass index (BMI), according to researchers whose study packed enough evidence to prove ties between frequent fast food dining and excess weight.

The report involved 3,394 young adult participants of a study on heart disease. The researchers from University of North Carolina looked closely into the participants’ consumption of fast food and traditional restaurant fare during the 7th and 10th year of the study. The incidence of eating at fastfood and traditional restaurant were compared with the participants’ BMI (ratio of weight to height) to determine if a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese or morbidly obese.

While researchers didn’t find proof linking consumption of traditional restaurant fare to excess pounds, they found out eating fast food had a corresponding rise in BMI.

Based on year 7 data, researchers observed that consuming an additional fast food meal a week resulted in a 0.13 rise in BMI. Likewise, the year 10 data showed eating an additional fast food meal per week increased a participant’s BMI by 0.24. To put in a clearer picture, a 0.13 and 0.24 hike in BMI is equivalent to an extra 0.9 and 1.7 pounds for a person with a frame of 5 feet and 10 inches.

The millions of diabetics all over the world are probably hoping for a resounding YES to this question! Recent studies showing evidence that cocoa and dark chocolate may have health benefits have been featured in the news, much to the excitement of avid chocolate lovers. (more…)

Type 2 diabetics with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (liver disease not attributable to alcohol abuse) have a “moderately increased” risk of developing cardiovascular disease. (more…)

What vitamin supplements are good for an elderly person with diabetes?

Many vitamin preparations and supplements abound in the market and are readily available to unwitting consumers. In fact, some manufacturers of these products have even become very aggressive in promoting them as cure all, “wonder” pills for many conditions, including diabetes mellitus and heart disease. Just when we consider buying other consumer products, it would be wise to ascertain how useful these supplements are before we spend our money on them. More importantly, we would be buying these products presumably to improve our health and well-being. (more…)