World Health Day is tomorrow, April 7th and the theme this year is Beat Diabetes. I’m really grateful for the theme this year considering diabetes is such a growing problem in our society. Almost all of us have a close family member, friend, or acquaintance with diabetes. In fact, the World Health Organization says that 350 million people worldwide have diabetes and that this number is expected to double in the next 20 years! To give some perspective, 350 million people is 42 New York Cities!!! In fact, 350 million is more than the entire US population. Pretty sobering.
It used to be that when people would talk about a child having diabetes, they were talking about Type 1 diabetes. It is the autoimmune version that is not preventable. However, these days it is becoming much more common to hear of kids with Type 2 diabetes, or the kind that can be prevented with proper diet and exercise. We all know that excessive weight increases the risk of a child developing diabetes, but developing healthy habits now, regardless of weight can help reduce your child’s risk of being one of those 350 million people with diabetes in their lifetime. Here are some things you can do as a family to help reduce the risk both now and later on down the road:
- Be active every day: Exercise actually improves the ability the cells in the body have to take and use the sugar that is transported through the blood stream for energy, maintaining normal blood sugar levels. Playing and exercising with your children can help their bodies keep their blood sugar in the normal range.
- Eat regularly: Skipping meals or eating too much at one meal can cause spikes and dips in the amount of sugar in your bloodstream, even in people without diabetes. This puts stress on blood vessels, the pancreas, and other organs of the body, not to mention these spikes and dips sap your energy! Parents need all the energy they can get and so do kids, so help your family eat at regular times (a good rule of thumb is to have a meal or snack about every 3-4 hours).
- Choose healthy foods: While treats and junk food are fine for special occasions, try to avoid them as a regular habit in your house. If eaten regularly they can lead to weight gain. Extra body fat actually puts stress on the pancreas and makes cells resistant to insulin (the hormone that pulls sugar into the cells to be used for energy). Also, children who are exposed to a wide variety of healthy foods as children are more likely to choose healthy foods as they grow up which can reduce their risk of diabetes.
For more facts and information on diabetes or the World Health Organization, visit: