Today is World Diabetes Day

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Yikes! I just realized that today is World Diabetes Day and that’s a huge deal.

An estimated 382 million people worldwide have diabetes, according to a report from the International Diabetes Federation. And the number is expected to rise to 592 million by 2035, when one in every 10 people will have the disease. That probably means that if you don’t suffer from diabetes yourself, you know someone who does.

This means that you could have a lot of knowledge on the subject because you suffer from the condition and already know about things like the diabetic socks for men and women that are available, how best to treat the condition, and what dietary changes you should make. However, you could just not know anything about the conditions because it doesn’t affect you directly. You might want to familiarize yourself with the dangers posed to diabetics in the midst of a pandemic. A virus outbreak, like COVID-19, could put diabetics in harm’s way as they are a vulnerable group, medically speaking. Things like ppe can help prevent them from coming into contact with the virus but additional precautions should be made when out and about in public.

Eating the right foods, exercising and monitoring blood sugar daily are keys to helping control the disease. This is where strawberries come in. The American Diabetes Association identifies berries, including strawberries, as one of the top 10 super foods for a diabetes meal plan.

Strawberries are categorized as a low-glycemic index food. Low glycemic foods are foods that are digested slowly and therefore, slowly released into the bloodstream as glucose. Foods that are generally high in sugar are released into the blood as glucose very quickly.

A cup full of strawberries gives about six grams of carbohydrates, which makes them a perfect food to add to everyday meals for diabetics. They also contain many flavonoids and antioxidants that aid in increasing their health benefits. Strawberries can improve immunity, are cancer fighting and improve metabolism, which helps in weight reduction. Weight management is important when tackling diabetes.

Strawberries have large quantities of vitamin A and vitamin C which increase the anti-inflammatory properties of strawberries. Bottom line-strawberries are good for you whether you are diabetic or not. Check out winter strawberries from Florida from late November through mid-March. There are non better and obviously, not only are they delicious, they are good for you, too.

2016-10-19T11:02:42-04:00