Top 7 Ways that Exercise Helps Diabetics

by : Katrina McKenna

Exercise is an important tool in managing your diabetes in order to live a longer, healthier life.

1. Exercise increase insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism.
The key problem of Type 2 diabetics is insulin insensitivity, or insulin resistance. By exercising you can improve how well your insulin works; this helps you to control your blood glucose
level.

2. Exercise improves your cholesterol levels. Exercise helps by
raising the good kind of cholesterol (HDL) and lowering the bad kind of cholesterol (LDL). Exercise can also lower triglyceride levels. This is good news for diabetics as diabetics are at
increased risk for cardiovascular disease. I myself have had cholesterol problems, but between proper diet and exercise and no drugs, I now have a much healthier cholesterol levels.

3. Exercise can decrease blood pressure. Many diabetics also have
hypertension or high blood pressure. Exercising can reduce both your resting blood pressure and your blood pressure during effort (including exercise). This is very important for reducing your chances of heart disease and stroke. I also used be on blood pressure medication, and have been able to get off the drugs. Because of the strong genetic component, this took more than just
diet and exercise; I take several supplements specifically to help keep my blood pressure in the healthy ranges. I also work on stress management and meditate, but exercise is a key ingredient to lowering it in most people.

4. Exercise can also improve heart efficiency, and help it work
less. This also helps with the cardiovascular risk factors. You will be able to exercise harder and it does not feel harder. This will make performing your daily tasks easier. Many people do not
exercise because they think they do not have the energy. They need to exercise to get the energy. Your resting heart rate can also lower.

5. Exercise can improve your mood. Diabetes can be a stressful
disease, exercising can help you feel better mentally. Exercise can even improve depression which can be an issue with a disease like diabetes.

6. Exercise aids dramatically in weight-loss and maintaining
weight-loss. Specifically, the right kind and right amount of exercise aids in fat-loss and preservation of muscle tissue. Losing weight can improve blood pressure, insulin resistance,
glucose levels, and cholesterol levels above and beyond what exercise alone does.

7. Exercise helps you to reduce your chances of diabetic
complications. Better control of your blood glucose helps prevent serious complications of diabetes, including blindness, neuropathy, and kidney failure.

Please talk to your doctor and start exercising!
You will feel so much better!

Getting The Most Nutritional Value From Fruits And Vegetables

by : Kim Black
You’re eating lots of fruits and vegetables every day, but are
you sure you’re getting the most nutritional value from them,
and what can you do to improve how many nutrients you are
getting. To understand we need to take a deeper look at the
trip that fruits and vegetables make to get to your table.

Many different factors can affect the nutritional value of
fruits and vegetables before they reach your table. The two
most important are time and traveling conditions. The shorter
the time frame that the fruit is packed until it reaches your
table the better. If you are lucky enough to have a home garden
try to pick your vegetables early in the morning for peak flavor
and nutritional value. The next best choice is to use a local
market stand. Generally the foods they are selling were picked
within a few hours of being set out for sale. If there are no
local markets in your area like most people you’ll be forced to
shop at a supermarket.

Before any produce reaches your local supermarket it must first
be picked, and packaged. If the food is coming to you from the
same state or neighboring state chances are it was picked
within 48 hours of reaching the stores shelves. If you’re
produce is making it way from California to New York chances
are it was picked 7 to 10 days ago. Why do you need to be
concerned about when something was harvested? When any produce
is picked off of the vine it is at its nutritional peak value.
It starts to lose that value as time passes, the more time that
passes, and the more value it loses.

The second biggest contributor is handling. If care is taken no
to bruise or damage the exterior skin produce will last longer.
Additionally storing a produce at the proper temperature will
also help slow down the loss of nutrients. Here’s where it gets
a little tricky, some fruits like temperatures as high as 60
degrees, and other prefer temperatures in the mid 30’s. So the
longer your food is in transit, and the more care that it shown
to handling it properly the more packed with nutrients it is
likely to be when it hits the shelves of your local
supermarket.