Top Obesity Doctor PROFESSOR NAVEED SATTAR: The Four Simple Diet Changes That Will Help You Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

By giving up the bag of chips, not buying a large bar of chocolate and adding more vegetables to your evening meal, you can easily reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

So says Professor Naveed Sattar, a doctor and expert in metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who has worked on clinical trials of lifestyle changes and medications to both prevent and manage diabetes.

Diabetes is a serious condition that affects more than 5.6 million people in the UK and an estimated 38 million in the US.

Although you cannot reduce the risk of type 1 diabetes, which is due to poor immune system function, lifestyle changes can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Here, Professor Sattar shares four simple tips he gives patients to reduce their risk of diabetes.

You CAN eat chocolate…just get a smaller bar

For many, snack culture is the reason for their weight gain.

Eating chips, cake and sweets between meals can add extra calories, sugar and fat to your daily intake.

Buying snacks in bulk and munching on a large bag of chips or a large bar of chocolate can make it very difficult to control how much you eat.

So Professor Sattar suggests opting for smaller packages and enjoying your treats.

“Most people reach for cakes, candy and cookies and people need them sometimes. What they need to learn is to try to cut down on what you eat,” he said.

Professor Sattar added: ‘Don’t buy a whole bar of your favorite chocolate. If you can’t resist, buy smaller versions and eat them slowly.’

“For example, I have a slice of KitKat, which is about 50 calories, I eat that twice a day with a cup of tea and I enjoy it and eat it very slowly. That seems to satisfy my sweet tooth,” he said.

Professor Sattar suggests opting for smaller packages and enjoying your treats to reduce the amount of refined sugar

Nearly 4.3 million people were living with diabetes in 2021/22, according to the latest figures for Britain. And another 850,000 people have diabetes and are completely unaware of it, which is worrying because untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to complications including heart disease and stroke.

The simplest solution: ditch those sugary drinks

Eliminating refined sugars by not drinking sweet sugary drinks can be an easy win for reducing your diabetes risk.

Although it can be difficult to relearn your sweet cravings, Professor Satter told MailOnline that the benefits were worth the effort.

“You have to learn to replace sugary drinks with low-calorie diet drinks, or even better, water,” he said.

It may take a while to retrain your taste buds, but with a little confidence, almost anyone can do it.

‘It’s an easy win because it’s empty calories. Drinking full-fat Coke or Irn-Bru, whatever your drink is, you don’t need that.’

Cutting out sugary drinks can be an easy way to reach your weight loss goal and thus reduce your risk of diabetes

Just one can of full-fat Coca Cola contains 139 calories and 35 grams of sugar, while Diet Coke contains only one calorie and 0 grams of sugar.

To put that into context, health chiefs recommend adults consume no more than 30 grams of sugar per day, with this amount being equivalent to around seven sugar cubes.

Too much sugar increases the risk of obesity, a known risk factor for diabetes.

So cutting out sugary drinks is not only an easy way to lose weight, but can also reduce the risk of diabetes.

But it’s not just carbonated drinks that are the culprits of hidden added calories and sugar.

According to Professor Satter, adding sugar to tea and coffee is also a risk for weight gain and therefore a possible diagnosis of diabetes.

“The same goes for adding sugar to your coffee. With a little effort, most people can eliminate sugar from their tea and coffee completely,” he said.

However, he admitted that it can take time to train your taste buds to enjoy an unsweetened beverage.

‘Some people can go cold turkey and get used to it, others can do it gradually and let their taste buds get used to it. It may take some effort at first, but you will start to see the benefits.

‘When I was younger I couldn’t drink tea without two sugars, and now I drink tea without sugar and if you put sugar in it I find it disgusting.’

People with a high waist circumference, people who have ever had high blood pressure, or people who are overweight or obese are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The condition causes the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood to become too high, the NHS says.

‘Type 2 diabetes is a disease of excess fat in the wrong places, regardless of your genetic potential, it’s weight gain that pulls the trigger. So, whatever diet helps you maintain or stop weight gain, it will help you reduce your risk of diabetes,” explains Professor Sattar.

He said: ‘Once you lose weight and start exercising more, you also start to build muscle. That’s when you burn off your sugar, and that adds to the benefit.’

“For most people, there is an almost straight line between their weight and the increase in their blood sugar levels,” he added.

Vegetables and salad make you less likely to snack

According to Professor Sattar, half of our plate should consist of salad or vegetables.

‘Eat some more fruit and add some more salad and vegetables to your meals. If you do this, the added vegetables will help you feel fuller and that will mean you can eat less cakes, biscuits, sugary snacks and added pasta and crisps,’ says Professor Sattar.

He admits it’s not an easy step and does mean the extra chore of chopping vegetables or making a salad, but he stresses it’s a “not impossible” change.

Professor Sattar encourages his patients to try diversifying their diet and adding more fiber-rich plant foods

“Many people simply haven’t gotten into the habit of eating salad and diversifying their diet. You have to start slowly,” he said.

Professor Sattar suggests simply starting by adding a few tomatoes to your plate, and once you’re used to it, trying some cucumber, before finally adding lettuce.

He said, ‘You have to gradually diversify your tastes and the things you start to enjoy. But you have to put in some effort at first.

‘Ideally, people would take a number of sustainable steps that will take six months to fully implement.

‘Start with low goals and build up slowly, giving yourself time to develop good habits that you start to enjoy. Because you have to retrain your taste buds to enjoy more varied food.’

The more fiber-rich plant foods you eat, the fuller you’ll feel, so you don’t have to fill your plate with chips, rice and bread, it explains.

Add fruit to the flavor of high fiber cereals

Switching to high-fiber grains, like shredded wheat, instead of popular sugary varieties can be an easy step toward reducing your diabetes risk.

Professor Sattar admitted that he too had made the switch to a low-sugar breakfast to reduce his own risk of diabetes.

Adding some fruit not only gave him more fiber, but also gave the cereal more flavor.

He said, “People think it tastes like cardboard, but I like the taste and texture. I add a little flavor by putting three or four sliced ​​grapes on it.”

“A lot of people like a sweet taste, so it’s a matter of getting used to having less of that sweet taste to satisfy the kick that they need,” he added.

A high-fiber diet will help you maintain a healthy weight and lose excess pounds.

One reason for this is that it makes you feel full longer and reduces your craving for snacks, says Professor Sattar.

‘Fibre is not absorbed very well in the body, it acts as a lubricant for the gut and carries calories with it. Fibre also slows down the absorption of other things, which is fantastic,’ Professor Sattar said.