Diabetes has been around for centuries. There are presently sixteen millions diabetics in America, but eight million do not know that they have the disease. Today, diabetes is in third place as the cause of mortality, behind cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Diabetes is caused by a disruption in insulin production in the body. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas when the level of blood sugar, glucose, increases – after a meal, most commonly. With the help of insulin, glucose moves from the blood into the cells. The cellular components turn the glucose into energy. When glucose does not enter cells, it stays in the blood and is filtered by kidneys which later eliminate it from the bloodstream.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when insulin in the body does not work as it should. Main symptoms of diabetes include excessive thirst, excessive urination, excessive appetite, fatigue, blurred vision, frequent and slow-healing infections including bladder, vaginal and skin. In men, diabetes may be accompanied by such symptoms as erectile dysfunction.

In order to timely recognize diabetes, everyone should be familiar with the different types of diabetes as well as with main symptoms of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a life-threatening condition which is less common. Those suffering with this type of diabetes need complete insulin replacement because the body does not make sufficient amounts of this essential hormone.

The most common type of diabetes is type 2 diabetes, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. 90f all diabetes cases in the US are diagnosed as Type 2.

There is also gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy due to specific hormonal changes in the body of the expectant mother.

Diabetes is often accompanied by obesity and high cholesterol and is a disease that often runs in families, so if one of your family members has it, you have a higher risk of developing diabetes too. Lack of activity, a diet rich in fats and processed products and obesity significantly increase your risk for diabetes.

Diabetes can be prevented and controlled by amending your diet. When we eat a product that is rich in sugar, the pancreas starts to produce more insulin to turn the sugar into energy. Saturated fat is transformed by the liver into sugar, which triggers the same response of pancreas – more insulin, more energy.

When the body doesn’t use this energy, it stores it as fat in the liver, on the stomach and hips. The more sugar and fat we eat, the more “storage space” our body requires.

However, when you switch to eating vegetables, cereals and other fiber-rich products cooked or seasoned with olive or grape seed oil, the pancreas does not need to produce any extra insulin. As a result, fat is not deposited in the body and the blood sugar levels remain stable. By avoiding sweet and fat-rich foods, blood sugar levels remains balanced which can delay the onset of diabetes and for those already diagnosed as diabetic can help them manage the condition.