Do you know that excess body fat is the one really important risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes? Obesity is the one thing you can control. You can see it and you can feel it happening from the first weeks. You know if your clothes are becoming too tight, or if you have to move your belt up one more notch! From there you move onto a larger size in clothes. There is your early warning sign.

Yes, we do have an aging population which could explain the increase in type 2 diabetes and it is more common in the over 50 age group. The truth is 90% of this group have gained a significant amount of weight since their early twenties. Nowadays more younger people are being diagnosed due to obesity; we now have overweight children and adolescents being diagnosed.

When we think of losing weight, the word diet springs to mind. It almost means deprivation to us, why not think of a healthy eating plan instead?

Who has benefited from fad diets? So many of us are dieting, riding a roller coaster of dieting and obsession, feeling deprived, binging then feeling guilty, then back to strict dieting and obsession. Jenny Craig, Atkins, Weight Watchers and South Beach are all fad diets that people usually give away after a short time. Research has revealed people who diet usually gain the lost weight back plus more pounds/kilograms.

Low-fat foods are readily available. Although fat may have been reduced in these foods, often calories/kilojoules are not. And they are usually too extreme in the carbohydrate (glycemic) load.

The main goal of weight loss is to lose body fat, not muscle. Water loss is fast and temporary and is regained very quickly. The formula for long-term weight loss is simple:

• Eat Less … reduce your energy intake. Take in less calories/kilojoules by eating more leafy vegetables and less fats, alcohol, starches, protein foods and refined carbohydrates
• Move More … increase your energy output. Spend more time with physical activity

You don’t need to cut anything out of your diet completely but the proportions are important:

• 30 per cent of your calories/kilojoules should come from lean protein
• 40 per cent from carbohydrates. Select foods with low-GI levels to try to keep the blood glucose response as low as possible
• this leaves 30 per cent from fats. And includes fat in the protein food, oil used in cooking, cream in your coffee, milk and margarine
• unsaturated fats come from olive oil, vegetable sources and fatty fish. They do not raise your cholesterol level
• saturated fats come from animal sources, eg. fat in steak, chicken, bacon, butter and cream. Less than one third of the daily fat intake should come from saturated fats. They have a tendency to promote coronary artery disease and you don’t want that.

An initial realistic goal if you are overweight, is to aim for a 5 to 10 per cent loss of your total body weight. This will help lower you blood sugar levels and give you better control of your type 2 diabetes.

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