Are you diabetic and restricted to a meal of beans and unripe plantain – a meal most Nigerians living with diabetes are made to believe is the only right food for them? This piece of news should be of interest to you. Experts say you can eat any food you can lay your hands on available to you even with your condition. There’s however a caveat: you must do so in moderation.

This was revealed yesterday by Dr. Femi Oyegbile, a Permanent Secretary with the Lagos State Ministry of Health, during the launch of the insulin support centre at the General Hospital, Ikorodu, Lagos state.

The Insulin Centre is a one-stop shop set up by Novo Nordisk, a global health care company with its headquarters in Denmark: The centre will see to the conducting of diabetes care training for the key stakeholders such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and peer educators, as well as ensuring availability of insulin at GHI. All these are to ensure that insulin is sold at affordable price – lower than N50 for a day use while patients are educated on how to live healthier lives.

According to Dr. Oyegbile, living with diabetes is neither a death sentence nor a restriction to living life to the fullest. “With proper education about wellness; people living with diabetes can still live normal and healthier lives” he revealed to National Mirror.

A Nigerian Mrs. Grace Ayokanbi confirmed Dr. Oyegbile’s stance. Speaking in an exclusive interview with National Mirror yesterday, she revealed that for the past 50 years, she has been eating anything and living a normal life.

“I have been living with diabetes for the past 50 years and have been eating and living a normal life. I was born with the condition because I inherited it from my parents.

“There’s no food a diabetic patient cannot take, if he or she has the right information at the finger tips as education about wellness is paramount to living a rich and fulfilled life notwithstanding the condition.

“For instance, unlike the general belief out there, a diabetic can actually eat eba, semo or wheat but when this is eaten, it must be followed by physical activities so that he or she can use the energy at that particular time. But the physical activities must not be so strenuous. It could be cleaning, mopping, being active in the kitchen or washing. At least, do something to burn down that energy” she stated.

You can never guess that Mrs. Ayokanmi is diabetic as she looks so beautiful, radiant and full of life. She says the secret to her youthful radiance is arming herself with vital information about wellness and the health condition.

For instance, she reveals further that one of the most important things diabetics will do for themselves in order to live life to the fullest as she is doing, is taking a lot of vegetables, water and fruits. And of course rest!

“The important thing is taking a lot of vegetables, a lot of water and a lot of fruits. And we need rest because it is not all the time we’re supposed to be active. But all these must be taken in the right proportion, that is, not too much and not too small. And we are not supposed to take all fruits because we don’t take the ones that are sweet; we take fruits like cucumber, garden eggs, and when in season, wall nuts”.

Records indicate that diabetes is emerging as the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) with strong link to a large number of cases of heart attacks and hypertension, especially among black people. The diabetes situation in Nigeria is not different from the global trend which shows that the condition kills one person every eight seconds.

According to experts, no fewer than 239 million Africans between the ages of 20 to 79 years would be diagnosed with diabetes come 2030, while a large number of these will be Nigerians. Unfortunately, a majority of people with diabetes in the country do not have access to treatment thus dying in silence while those who do, spend nothing less than 20,000 naira every month on medication. This is a major issue the Novo Nordisk insulin centre is addressing. According to the company’s Vice President, African Gulf and India, Mr. Mads Bo Larsen, “the centre targets low income earners living with the condition in order to alleviate the burden of affordability of their medication since insulin will be sold at very reduced rate in the centre. And this, with time, will be replicated all over the country”.

This ailment which does not discriminate against age, race and sex is responsible for no fewer than four million lives lost every year, no fewer than one million amputations done in a year as well as most of the manpower hour lost in most organizations worldwide. It is actually one of the major underlying causes of death among those living with other ailments. Worldwide, diabetes has been discovered to be one of the five major killers of humans at all age levels.

Even four-year-old kids are today being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes requiring them to take two injections a day. Unfortunately, most of these people do not even know that they are diabetic.

Source:http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/diabetic-eat-what-you-like/#!prettyPhoto