What is diabetes?
Diabetes is simply an increase in the glucose content of your blood, due to the inability of your cells to properly access or use this glucose.Diabetes has killed more than AIDS and malaria combined.


The Breakdown:
You will remember that we have a special class of food called carbohydrates a.k.a energy giving foods. It includes such foods as: bread, rice… Carbohydrates are usually called polysaccharides because they contain very many different types of sugars. However there is a special type of sugar we call glucose that your cells need for energy. So your body has to extract glucose from carbohydrate.

To do this your body uses different types of chemicals called enzymes to separate the glucose from carbohydrate in the following steps:

1. Mouth: the separation begins in your mouth. When you chew your bread (carbohydrate), you are mixing it with your saliva, your saliva comes from a place we call the salivary gland. Your salivary gland also produces a chemical we call amylase. Amylase changes the carbohydrate into a form we call Maltose (maltose contains only 2 sugars, so from many sugars we now have just 2).

2. Esophagus: When you swallow, the food has left your mouth and travels in a wave like form through ‘road’ we call esophagus. Nothing much happens here.

3. Stomach: so your food has finally gotten to the stomach. Your stomach is acidic and so the acid ‘kills’ that amylase that was produced in your mouth, and that travelled with your food which is now maltose all this while.

4. Duodenum: From the stomach our food (which is now maltose) enters the duodenum. The duodenum is the first part of the small intestine, just immediately after the stomach. In the duodenum, maltose now mixes with another chemical (enzyme) called maltase, which finally converts it to glucose, which your cells need for energy.


But what of Insulin?

Insulin is another chemical (a hormone this time), that determines how high or low the glucose in your blood is. After carbohydrate has been converted to glucose, the glucose is transported by the blood around the body.

Now, if the glucose content of your blood is high, certain cells called Beta Cells in an organ called the pancreas are signaled to release insulin. Insulin is like a password that tells your body cells to start absorbing glucose.

If the glucose level is still excess, insulin signals the liver to store this glucose in a form called glycogen, and this is released later when the glucose level in your blood drops. Insulin, in other words, is a ‘glucose level regulator’.

So What Causes Diabetes

Diabetes can be caused by two factors:

1. Total lack of insulin: this results when our immune system erroneously sees beta cells (the cells that tell the pancreas to produce insulin) as enemies and destroys them. So, the pancreas are unaware of the glucose level in the blood.

2. Insufficient production of insulin: this results when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to regulate the blood glucose level or when the amount of glucose in the blood is excess as compared to what the insulin produced can handle.

What are Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

This is quite simple. Type 1 Diabetes is diabetes caused by total lack of insulin. It is also called Insulin Dependent Diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes is diabetes caused by insufficient production of insulin. Or, because the cells are not responding to the insulin produced. It is also called Non-insulin Dependent Diabetes.

What are the common symptoms of Diabetes

Diabetes is usually not easily identified. However, occurrence of more than four of these symptoms listed below together should call for medical intervention.

Symptoms of Diabetes include:
1 It is often detected in children
2 Blurred vision
3 Frequent urination, and bed-wetting for children
4 Smelling breath (the breath might have the smell of common fruits, but cannot be perceived by the diabetic)
5 Unquenchable thirst
6 Unexplainable weight loss
7 Wounds and cuts that take abnormally long to heal
8 Sugary urine

Now, if these symptoms are detected in a child or an early adult it is most likely Type 1 Diabetes. If it is detected much later in life, it is Type 2 Diabetes.

How Can Diabetes Be Managed

Let me state here that being diagnosed with diabetes is not a death sentence. As medical science has developed so much as to understand the root causes. Properly diagnose them and proffer ways of management.

ü In cases of type 1 diabetes, regular insulin shots are required. This is because, the body cannot produce insulin at all and so, insulin has to be injected into the bloodstream manually. Sufferers of type 1 diabetes will always have to check their blood sugar level regularly.



1 Sufferers of Type 2 Diabetes must involve in regular exercise and must fight weight gain
2 General diabetics must keep close watch on their diets. Fast foods must be limited as much as possible.
3 Avoid stress. An increase in stress can cause an increase in blood glucose level.


What are foods that a diabetic should avoid

Generally diabetics should limit consumption of refined carbohydrates like:
1. Rice
2. Pasta (noodles)
3. White bread
4. French fries
5. Any snack processed with white flour

NB: Since prevention is better than cure, you don’t have to be a diabetic before limiting the intake of the above mentioned foods.

What are the kinds of food a diabetic should consume

The following are some foods that are medically recommended for diabetics:
1 Fresh fruits
2 Leafy vegetables, this provides fiber
3 Whole wheat bread
4 Baked sweet potato
5 Whole grain pasta


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