Do you have a sweet tooth?

In a recent article published in Nature (link here) found that consumption of added sugar in your diet could be harmful to your health. They found in their study that when mice had added sugar that made up 25% of their diet, female mice died two times as fast while the male mice were less likely to reproduce. This of course excludes sugar that are naturally present in foods, but how does this all relate to you?

                According to the American Diabetes Association there are 25.8 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes in 2011 and about 86 million people are estimated are undiagnoised with diabetes or have prediabetes. The results of this study suggest that diabetes may be on the rise and there may be more side effects than previously known. About ¼ of Americans have diets that are made up of 25% added sugar and these people are at the highest risk of acquiring diseases such as diabetes. Other diseases and complications may also be seen such as heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, neuropathy, and amputation.

                The most common form of diabetes is type 2 diabetes.  This type of Diabetes is commonly linked to a higher percentage of belly fat around the abdomen.  These individuals are more often than not producing insulin but it is getting trapped in their fat cells. Many of the people with type 2 diabetes are insulin resistant for quite some time before obtaining the diagnosis of diabetes.  Insulin resistance, this term means is that you have high blood glucose levels compared to a normal person as your body is struggling to regulate your blood sugars. The reason why some people are undiagnosed is because there are no clear symptoms and you may or may not know that you have it. There are risk factors associated with diabetes type 2 and being overweight is one of them. The American Diabetes Association lists the risk factors here. What about those that have diabetes, what can you do? From a podiatrist’s perspective there are steps you can do to take care of your feet because one of the areas you first display symptoms are in your feet. The complications in the foot can be devastating and diabetic non-traumatic amputations are globally happening at the rate of 1 every 30 seconds.  Visit our website to learn more about these steps!