You Can Beat Diabetes

En español | FICTION: If you're at high risk for diabetes, you're going to get the disease.

FACT: The Diabetes Prevention Program — which followed more than 3,000 overweight, prediabetic men and women at 27 research centers — found that people who lost even a little weight and exercised consistently (a goal of 30 minutes five days a week) reduced their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. (People 60 and up cut their risk by a whopping 71 percent.) "If you're overweight, try to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories," says Christine Tobin of the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

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FICTION: Diabetics need a special diet.

FACT: Not long ago diabetics were urged to forgo sweets and drastically limit their intake of carbohydrates. But a slew of new research suggests that diabetics are best served by following the same healthy guidelines everyone else does: plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat and dairy products, and sparing amounts of heart-healthy fats.

FICTION: There's a cure for diabetes.

FACT: Halle Berry's claims to the contrary — in 2007 she announced she had been cured of her type 1 diabetes — there is no cure for either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, says Sue Kirkman, M.D., senior vice president at the ADA. According to a study published last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine, however, 56 percent of type 2 diabetics who followed a Mediterranean-style diet could control their blood sugar without medication.