Diabetic diets aren’t just for people with diabetes anymore. Although they don’t sound like a whole lot of fun, they’re not actually as restrictive or difficult to maintain as you might think. In fact, despite the label, most of them are simply a healthier way of eating, and eating healthy comes with all kinds of great benefits, like lower stress, a healthier weight, and better overall fitness. Here are five reasons why a diabetic diet is good for you, even if you don’t have diabetes.
It keeps you regular.
The kinds of food a diabetic diet focuses on include those containing good carbs. So, instead of filling your body full of sugar and fat, you eat lots of vegetables and healthy grains. These come with a lot of fiber, which keeps digestion moving along at a healthy pace. Even though occasional constipation isn’t a major disorder in and of itself, it’s still uncomfortable and not good for you. It can lead to bloating, vomiting, pain, or be a side effect of more serious things. Irritable bowel syndrome, colon cancer, chronic stress, and abdominal disorders can all result in slow moving bowels. Regardless of the cause, the better your intestinal tract is working, the better you feel and the less you have to worry about.
It helps you maintain a healthy weight.
Obesity is overwhelming the nation. It’s also a risk factor for almost every major medical disorder under the sun. Eating the right amount and variety of healthy foods, while cutting out fatty, sugar-filled foods, promotes weight loss, especially when combined with a regular exercise regimen. Diabetic diets take some of the best aspects from a lot of the most popular weight loss plans and combine them into a long-term, highly effective lifestyle change.
It can prevent type 2 diabetes.
Although experts aren’t positive about exactly what causes both kinds of diabetes, they have identified some risk factors. Aside from genetics, being overweight is one of the biggest. So, since a diabetic diet helps keep your weight down, you’ll be less likely to develop diabetes, especially if you’ve got other risk factors.
It can improve your cholesterol and blood pressure.
Since obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure frequently go hand in hand with diabetes, a diabetic diet is often helpful for treating the rest of these issues as well. Cholesterol and blood pressure levels often drop along with weight when you make these dietary changes. Diabetic diets are also high in healthy fats, and this can help reduce cholesterol levels even further.
It reduces the risk of heart disease and strokes.
A diet plan for preventing heart disease and stroke is almost identical to a diabetic diet. In the same way that these can help manage diabetes, they can also improve heart function as well. While being low in bad fats, calories, salt, and sugar, diabetic diets are also high in fiber, good fats, and good carbohydrates, which is exactly what the heart is looking for. A healthier heart leads to healthier blood vessels, which means a healthier brain and a reduced risk of stroke.
