WHENEVER I TEACH a diabetes education workshop, people tell me they wish someone would have taught them what to do when they were first diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes.  It’s never too late to learn how to control it.

THE LONGER diabetes goes uncontrolled, the greater the chance you will develop complications, many of which are not reversible. Learning how to control diabetes (or prevent it if you have been told you have prediabetes) is something you don’t get  in your 30 seconds with the doctor.

HERE ARE four simple tips which, when practiced daily, can help get your to your best weight AND help you control and reverse diabetes.  It’s easy when you know what to do!

1. WALK.
2. DRINK 8 cups of water a day (5-8 cups a day for kids).*
3. EAT rainbows (fruits and vegetables the colors of the rainbow – see blueberries** below).
4. REPEAT 1-3.

To learn more about what a healthy weight is for you  – and your kids – go to www.cdc.gov.

Thank you,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

While doing some work in a hospital this week, I stopped by the cafeteria looking for healthy foods for a young friend who was hungry and needed a snack.

I was disappointed beyond belief.  Here’s why.

On a tray placed within the reach of children was a handful of prepackaged pastries.  I picked one up and turned it over to look at the nutrition facts label on the back.  Calories-370.  Fat-18 grams.  If you take the 18 grams of fat and multiply it times 9 (9 calories per gram of fat), that’s  162 calories from fat.

The average person eats around 2,000 calories a day.  About 25-30% should be from fat (the good fat, called “unsaturated”).  Therefore,  you need about 500-600 calories a day from fat.  If you ate this pastry, you’d be getting between 27 and 32% of your day’s TOTAL fat calories.  Plus the fat in these pastries was NOT the good fat.   Of course there was NO DIETARY FIBER in these pastries, so if an employee needed a pick-me-up, they would be getting a let-me-down instead.  A quick sugar high, then BAM, an instant sugar crash.

Why can’t hospitals carry more healthy snacks and less unhealthy snacks for those people who are forced to eat there because a loved one had an unplanned heart attack due to eating too many foods filled with the bad fats (called “saturated” and “trans”)?  Why can’t hospitals care about health as much as they care about disease?  Why can’t they serve healthy foods and serve as a role model for building healthy communities?  A pastry that’s almost 400 calories and contains more than 20 ingredients is filled with things that cause diabetes and obesity.

What’s YOUR local hospital serving in its cafeteria to improve the health of its employees and community?  A serving of diabetes in the form of high sugar foods?  A serving of massive heart attack disguised as a double cheeseburger on a white bun?  A side order of obesity, perhaps?

If we as a country are going to prevent diseases like diabetes and heart disease, we had better start asking our local hospitals to do better that what I saw this week in Indian River County, Florida. What is in YOUR hospital’s cafeteria?

Thank you,

Nancy Heinrich

Your Healthy Diabetes Coach

For information about how to control and prevent diabetes, click on “coaching” at the top right of this page.

Got kids?  Be sure and visit www.growinghealthykids.blogspot.com for ideas and recipes for preventing obesity-related diseases in kids.

Got diabetes?  Got kids?

If you are a parent who happens to have diabetes, then you have an opportunity to break the chain of disease in your family.  Take the lead role in managing your own diabetes by putting your health team together, learning the questions to ask your doctor, finding the right foods to eat, and knowing the lab tests to monitor.  Transform into a powerful role model and advocate for your children.

Diabetes is preventable. Doctors won’t spend much of your office visit, however, talking with you about how to ensure that your children don’t develop it.   It is a matter of your own health literacy.   If you have diabetes, your children are at an increased risk for it.   If you eat too many of the bad carbohydrate foods (like white flour, white sugar, white potatoes, fruit juice, soda, and candy), your kids are probably eating the same foods.  If you don’t eat enough of the good carbohydrates (like brown rice, whole grain breads with 4 or more grams of dietary fiber per slice, and non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and squash, and fresh fruits), your kids certainly aren’t getting enough of them either.  If you don’t walk, jog, or swim or anything else that gets you moving, your kids will think it is OK if they don’t exercise.

Enjoy the freedom that comes with an increase in your own health literacy, as well as the improvements in your own health when you know what to do.  Then teach – and empower – your family.  It’s the gift they will use the rest of their lives.

If you know someone who has recently been diagnosed with diabetes, or who is still struggling to learn where to begin, then check out the Healthy Diabetes Coach education program.  I created this program after working with thousands of adults with uncontrolled diabetes who were referred to me by their physicians.  As a result of completing this to-the-point, easy education program, you will be able to talk with your doctor about your goals, lab results, and strategies for controlling, reversing, and preventing diabetes.  Don’t wait until you have a son or daughter diagnosed with diabetes because they are a little overweight, drink sodas all the time, and never enjoy the fresh air.  Take the step of improving your own health literacy and check out what the Healthy Diabetes Coach can do to put you in charge of your health and empower your family with knowledge.  It’s easier than you think!

Thank you,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH