Prevention, Coping and Salutary Actions

The prevention and coping program for diabetes play an essential role in maintaining longevity or long-term health in any community. It primarily aims to educate the population by disseminating a set of recommendations for an overall healthy lifestyle. Eminently evidence-based, with a foundation in logical, scientific arguments, a healthy lifestyle includes not only regular physical activity but also a healthy diet. The program must be promoted in specific places and contexts of activity (school, workplaces, or at home, within the family), and this is precisely what LOL English Diabetes Academy aims to achieve through the NutrisCOOL component and the adopted dietary scheme. Built on natural choices of foods and, therefore, on the elimination of ultra-processed foods that are rich in hydrogenated fats, or refined carbohydrates (with sugar, additives, preservatives, emulsifiers etc.), a healthy lifestyle brings predictably long-term health by normalizing blood glucose, lipid levels, blood pressure, and body weight. In a few words, let’s review the following recommendations for a healthy lifestyle, though the list can go on beyond these:

• Water, tea, or natural fruit juices freshly squeezed instead of processed fruit juices or carbonated drinks sweetened with sugar.
• At least three servings of vegetables and fruits every day.
• Snacking between meals based on nuts (walnuts, peanuts, etc.), unsweetened, unprocessed yogurt, or yogurt with unsweetened, unprocessed fruit or cereals.
• Peanut butter instead of sweetened and processed chocolate spread, jam, or marmalade.
• White meat, chicken, fish or cheese instead of their processed counterparts.
• Brown rice, bread, whole wheat pasta, or corn (gluten-free) instead of white rice, bread, or pasta made from white flour.

The list can go on, but it is particularly important to opt for natural, healthy, eminently unprocessed products, rich in protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Equally important is to eliminate processed foods that are abundant in ‘empty calories’, refined carbohydrates, or trans fats (hydrogenated), regardless of the temptation. Studies have shown that processing deprives products of the nutrients necessary for maintaining good health and therefore, for keeping diseases at bay. Furthermore, if we got used to reading the labels of foods and thus identify processed products and eliminate them from our diet, we might be perhaps perhaps taking one of the most important steps towards health.

In the same vein, it is equally important to understand that obesity prevention begins as early as possible in children’s upbringing. It would be ideal if pediatricians and psychologists made a joint, interdisciplinary effort and collaborated in targeted counseling of parents regarding suitable nutrition for their children. Regular physical activity and avoiding excess calories (often as a result of boredom or compulsive eating) should definitively shape the counseling picture. Body weight, height, and body mass index should be regularly assessed and marked on growth charts to identify overweight trends in a timely manner. Once identified, interventions should be initiated as early as possible to minimize the chances of predictable diagnosis. According to the American Diabetes Association, weight loss, increased exercise capacity, blood glucose normalization, and control of comorbidities (hypertension, dyslipidemia, nephropathy, hepatic steatosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver, etc.) through the adoption of a healthy lifestyle constitute the therapeutic objectives of maximum priority in the management of diabetes in both children and adults.

Ultimately, nothing is more important than health, and this often lies in simplicity, in making life choices as simple, natural and accessible as possible.