Losing weight may reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes         

[AUG. 9, 2005]  URBANA -- Although people with type 1 diabetes are typically born with it, type 2 diabetes is most prevalent and is associated with obesity. In fact, an estimated 80 percent of those who develop type 2 diabetes are obese.

Karen Chapman-Novakofski, associate professor and nutritionist at the University of Illinois, explains that type 2 diabetes is often developed when people are in their 40s, 50s and 60s -- a time in life when they may be adding a few pounds. Staying within a healthy weight range may prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.

"Because there has been a rise in the number of obese teens, we're seeing more cases of type 2 diabetes, and we're seeing more of these problems with people earlier -- in their 40s as opposed to their 60s," says Chapman-Novakofski. "We're also seeing what's referred to as 'mature onset' in youth younger than teens."

There's also a condition known as pre-diabetes, which means that the blood glucose levels are between normal and a diagnosis of the disease. "A person's physician may tell them that they have found 'some sugar' in the urine or blood. If people are at this stage of pre-diabetes, it's the time to make some lifestyle and diet changes before the condition develops into full-blown diabetes -- decrease calories, lose weight and increase exercise."

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness and amputation in adults. It is a disorder in which the body's cells fail to take up glucose from the blood. Tissues waste away as glucose-starved cells are forced to consume their own proteins.

"Almost all of the increased cases in the last decade have been in the 85 percent of diabetics who suffer from type 2, or 'adult-onset' diabetes," says Chapman-Novakofski. "These individuals lack the ability to use the hormone insulin effectively."

Chapman-Novakofski says there have been major breakthroughs in genetic research concerning the familial clustering of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, although much more research is needed to understand how insulin "signals" to a cell and how the insulin receptor works at the molecular level.

Chapman-Novakofski says she's in the business of helping people change their lifestyles in order to improve their health, particularly with respect to diabetes. She has adapted and modified the content for a program called "Dining with Diabetes." It's a statewide program that was first developed at the University of West Virginia. "So far about 3,000 people in Illinois have participated in the three-day-long sessions," she says. "It focuses on teaching people how to cook meals that are healthy. And, they get to taste the meals and verify that they actually taste good too."

Participants in the program are given a pretest and a post-test in order to evaluate their understanding and commitment to change their diet.

"Some people don't know much at all about how what they eat affects their diabetes, so they need to be made more aware," Chapman-Novakofski says. "Some are at the I-need-to-do-something stage but don't know where to start. Some may have already purchased a cookbook for diabetics, and some may have already attempted to make changes in their lifestyle."

People tend to make changes in life based on how bad they think it is -- how susceptible they are to disease, she says. "Teens believe they are invincible, and going blind in 40 years, which can happen if their diabetes is not controlled, is hard for them to imagine happening. Adults tend to think of the barriers to change -- money, time or energy, so we try to show them ways to overcome those barriers.

"It's especially important for people with diabetes to be able to identify which foods are high in carbohydrates and which foods are high in calories," she says. Carbohydrates have a greater effect on blood glucose than protein or fat alone. It's important for people to know which foods those are. It is also important to maintain calories at a constant level so that weight isn't going up. Too many calories also will cause blood glucose to rise.

The symptoms of diabetes are increased thirst and urination, sometimes a sudden change in weight, and blurred vision.

For more information about diabetes, visit http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/diabetes/index.html.

Over 3,000 people in Illinois have participated in the three-day-long Illinois Extension program called "Dining with Diabetes." Participants take the pretest below in order to evaluate their understanding and commitment to change their diet. Try taking the test yourself to see how much you know. Answers are below the test.

Take the Dining with Diabetes test

The following questions ask what you know about certain foods.

1. Check each of the foods that are sources of carbohydrate:

___ Hamburger patty

___ Milk

___ Apple

___ Orange juice

___ Cookie

___ Sugar

___ Bread

___ Olive oil

___ Potato

___ Butter

2. Check the sweetener that loses its sweet taste in baking.

___ Aspartame (Nutrasweet)

___ Saccharin (Sweet 'n Low)

___ Acesulfame potassium (Sweet One)

___ Sucralose (Splenda)

3. When two kinds of artificial sweeteners are used together, they are much sweeter than when either is used alone.

___ True

___ False

4. Do you know how to use the food guide pyramid for daily meal planning?

___ Yes

___ No

5. Which one of the following is not usually printed on the nutrition facts label on packaged foods?

___ Starch

___ Sugar

___ Total fat

___ Cholesterol

6. Check all of the following foods that are high in saturated fat.

___ Butter

___ Olive oil

___ Lard

___ Corn oil

7. Check all of the following foods that are high in monounsaturated fat.

___ Butter

___ Olive oil

___ Lard

___ Corn oil

8. Which type of fat is usually printed on the nutrition facts label?

___ Total fat

___ Monounsaturated fat

___ Saturated fat

___ Polyunsaturated fat

9. Check all of the following reasons that fiber is important in the diet.

___ To provide roughage

___ To provide a quick source of energy

___ To help the body get rid of some of the cholesterol we eat

___ To help slow down absorption of glucose

* * *

Answers:

1. Apple, cookie, bread, potato, milk, orange juice, sugar

2. Aspartame (Nutrasweet)

3. True

4. Yes

5. Starch

6. Butter, lard

7. Olive oil, corn oil

8. Total fat

9. To provide roughage, to help the body get rid of some of the cholesterol we eat, to help slow down absorption of glucose

[Debra Levey Larson, University of Illinois]

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