With the increasing conversation about prediabetes and type 2 diabetes you’ve likely heard the terms insulin resistance and it’s opposite insulin sensitivity. Another term that’s entered our lexicon with the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes is metabolic syndrome…a group of symptoms which at its core is insulin resistance.

Think of metabolic syndrome, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes as a continuum.

What follows are simple explanations of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome along with action steps to put them in reverse or at least slow their progression over time. 

Insulin Resistance Defined
Insulin resistance most often occurs in people who are overweight. It’s particularly common in people who carry excess weight around their middle – waist line. An apple-shaped figure is often associated with insulin resistance. The medical term is central adiposity.

This is one in a series of book reviews. You may find these books beneficial if you: manage prediabetes or diabetes, follow a diabetes meal plan and/or try to eat healthy to live well. These book reviews also appear on amazon.com. The books I’ve reviewed here can be found in my amazon a-store. Please check them out and consider a purchase.

Go unDiet – a catchy, succinct title. But what’s inside this book, which on the cover promises 50 Small Actions for Lasting Weight Loss? Cut to the chase, easy-to-digest, common-sense tips to get away from “dieting” and on to slowly changing your eating habits towards healthy – once and for all. The author, Gloria Tsang, RD is a well respected dietitian, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the popular online nutrition website HealthCastle.com.

Tsang and I agree on a lot, particularly unDiet’s basic premises, she says:

This guest blog was written on request for appforhealth.com in response to Julie's blog A Week to Beat Your Cravings for Sweets. I want to thank Julie for being open to dialoging about key nutrition topics:

Can people be “sugar addicted”? Not likely! But are we slurping, sipping and chewing too much sugar? Absolutely!

American Heart Association research shows that as of 2009 Americans down, on average, 22 teaspoons of sugar per day (Dietary sugars intake and cardiovascular health. (Not surprising when one 20 ounce soft drink contains 15 teaspoons!)

Suffice to say, dramatic changes have occurred in our understanding of the onset and progression of prediabetes over the last decade. Lightening speed changes have also occurred regarding the therapies available to achieve optimal blood glucose control.

However, even with all of this change many old dogmas hang on. It’s time to be aware of the new realities. Here I’ve focused on two common old dogmas and the new realities.

Suffice to say, dramatic changes have occurred in our understanding of the onset and progression of prediabetes over the last decade. Lightening speed changes have also occurred regarding the therapies available to achieve optimal blood glucose control.

However, even with all of this change many old dogmas hang on. It’s time to be aware of the new realities.  Here I’ve focused on two common old dogmas and the new realities.