Glycemic index food

Diabetes: Glycemicindex food

Ninety percent of all diabetics suffers from type 2 diabetes, also called age-related diabetes. A different lifestyle and tablets usually suffice to get the disease out of control. Imagine that you have "only" type 2 diabetes, however, is a dangerous attitude. 'There is also a great chance of complications among these people and it is very important to keep the condition under control as well as possible', according to Prof. Luc Van Gaal, head of diabetology at the UZA.

Who and what?

About 3.5 to 5 percent of the Belgian population sooner or later gets type 2 diabetes. The disease usually only develops after 40 years, hence the name of old age diabetes. In these patients there is still insulin production, but it is either inadequate or of poorer quality.

Overweight is important cause

While type 1 diabetes can not be prevented for the time being, the development of type 2 diabetes is closely related to a person's lifestyle. An unhealthy diet, obesity and too little exercise stimulate the disease. Eighty percent of the patients are overweight.

"What does not mean that you get type 2 diabetes by eating too much sugar," Van Gaal emphasizes. 'That is a persistent misunderstanding. Obesity plays a central role, but it does not matter how those kilos have come. "

Therapy

In the treatment, nutrition and exercise, together with medication, are the big pillars. Getting rid of at least a portion of the surplus kilos is a must.

         'As far as medication is concerned, it is sufficient for most type 2 diabetics to take tablets daily. They poke the remaining insulin, so to speak, so that the sugars from our diet still end up in the cells. The disadvantage of conventional drugs is that most cause weight gain, which is extra disadvantage for diabetics. At the moment there are new types of medication in the pipeline that  would not have that side effect. Some would even promote weight loss. '

       If the patient does not get his sugar value under control, he must then proceed to insulin injections.

            Most type 2 diabetes patients go to check-ups twice a year in a specialized center. They can go to the doctor for interim checks.

"Little" diabetes does not exist

Because patients with type 2 diabetes usually do not have to inject insulin during the initial phase of their condition and apparently suffer less from their disease, people sometimes dare to minimize the condition. Especially with a moderate increase in blood sugar it soon becomes clear that 'someone has a little bit of his sugar'. That is also a misunderstanding.

'Even with blood sugar values ​​of less than 140 milligrams per deciliter, there is an important risk of complications and the patient must be treated quickly and with focus. There is no such thing as "having a little diabetes"

Type 2 diabetics risk the same complications as people with type 1 diabetes. But because the disease is not acute, it often takes years before the diagnosis is made. This often only happens when there are serious complications and the patient, for example, has a heart attack. Hence the importance of early and active detection.

Glycemic index

Nutrition with a low or average GI is often recommended to people with diabetes, because the blood sugar level remains more stable. The GI of a food is expressed in a number from 0 to 100. A GI of less than 55 is low, from 55 to 70 is average, and greater than 70 is high.

Because the glycemic index does not take into account the amount of carbohydrates in a product, the glycemic charge (GL) is added to the table. This reflects the effect on the blood sugar level of a portion of a product. Roughly speaking, a GL is greater than 20 high, an average value is between 10 and 20 and a GL smaller than 10 is low.

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