Culled from: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/six-bad-habits-that-put-you-at-risk-for-diabetes/1/523880.html

According to experts, a widening waistline is a leading cause of diabetes and heart diseases around the world. Fat accumulation around the torso often results in high blood pressure and blood sugar levels. There are certain bad habits that increase the risk of diabetes. Small yet significant lifestyle changes can help you stop the disease in tracks or keep it under your control.

#Eating more refined carbs: Simply put, refined carbs such as white bread and white rice are bad for your waistline. Refined carbs stimulate your body to produce more insulin, causing an insulin surge in the body. They get absorbed easily, making you feel hungry soon after consuming them. As a result, you munch more.

Switch to: Complex carbs. Eating complex carbs such as brown rice, whole grain breads, oatmeal, etc make you feel full in the stomach for longer. They take more time to digest, releasing slow but continuous energy for a long duration.

#Sitting all day: You move out of your house, get into your car, reach office and work on your desk for 8-10 hours and then come back home and watch TV till late in night. Either hard pressed for time or too tired, people hardly move around, which makes their waistline grow. Less physical activity is the biggest reason behind many lifestyle disorders like diabetes, thyroid, heart disease, etc.

Switch to: Move as much you can. This not just help you maintain a healthy weight, it can also help you keep your blood sugar levels in limits. At least 150 minutes of physical activity per week is necessary for all. Go for little tweaks like taking the stairs and getting off one stop early from your car so that you can walk to your office or home.

#Working late into the night: Trading precious sleep hours to meet a deadline or chat till the morning hours has become a common habit among young adults, boosting their risk of developing diabetes.

Switch to: Sign out in order to sleep well. Research has shown that poor sleep can lead to high blood pressure and weight gain and these alone are risk factors for diabetes development. When you are awake, you binge more and thus, put on weight. Inadequate sleep also makes you feel exhausted all the time.

#Taking stress: Stress is not directly linked to diabetes but it is considered as a contributory factor. When in stress, the body releases a stress hormone called 'cortisol', which is antagonistic to insulin activity. The stress hormones make your blood sugar go up. So you may need more insulin or medication to control it. In addition, when stressed, you are more likely to reach out to junk food and eat more.

Switch to: Exercise is the best remedy. Several studies have shown that exercising brings down the stress levels wonderfully. You can also look at ways such as taking a ten-minute break from work, participating in a sport or simply catching up on some sleep during the weekends.

#Skipping breakfast: Rushing through the door, giving breakfast a deliberate miss has become a routine for most of us. During the busy hours of morning, breakfast looks more like a time consuming activity than a necessity. Those who skip breakfast are more likely to consume more calories and fatty food during the day.

Switch to: Eat before you leave. The breakfast should be wholesome. Fill half of your plate with fiber (fruits and veggies), 1/4 should be protein and rest should be complex carbs (whole wheat bread or oats).

#Late dinner: After a day's hard work, digging into a sumptuous dinner (high-fat) is what most of us look forward to. Dinner is perhaps the only time when we are not rushing. And 50 per cent of our calories come from dinner, which should ideally be coming from the breakfast. But the problem doesn't end here. Immediately after having dinner, we crash on our beds. There is no physical activity and the body doesn't get time to digest the food. As a result, the fat soon starts accumulating on the waistline.

Switch to: Light is right. According to experts, there should be a three hour gap between your dinner and sleep time. Aim for a healthy balanced diet. Take more proteins. Along with reducing the quantity, improve the quality of the food. Fats should come from healthy sources like olive oil, rice bran oil and nuts. Also taking small meals throughout the day can help you reduce the portion size at dinner.

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