Researchers have discovered there are five major risk factors for type II diabetes, often referred to as the ‘lifestyle disease’, and each one on its own can cause the disease.  Eliminating, or making improvements, in all five areas could bring your risk level to zero.

The five risk areas are:
• Eat dietary fibre and polyunsaturated fats;
• Eat less trans fat, starchy and sugary foods.
• Smoking:  if you smoke, stop
• Alcohol:  drink no more than two glasses of alcohol a day
• Weight: get your weight down to a body mass index of less than 25, or a waist measurement of less than 88 cm (34.6 inches) if you’re a woman, and 92 cm (36.2 inches) for men.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health discovered that the five lifestyle factors accounted for nine out of 10 of all cases of diabetes when they tracked 4,883 men and women aged 65 and older for 10 years.  During the study period, more than 300 of the participants developed diabetes.

The Harvard research team reckons that by improving each of the five lifestyle factors reduces the diabetes risk by 35 per cent.

(Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 169: 798).