An essential bodily function is the production of insulin in the pancreas. The job of this hormone is to convert blood sugar, or glucose, into energy to fuel the body. But in the case of Type 1 diabetes in children, the pancreas ceases to do its job, for reasons that are as yet unexplained. If this occurs, sugar starts to accumulate in the blood. This is a serious situation which can damage the major organs and even lead to death. So it’s crucial that the diabetic child provide their body with insulin on a daily basis to keep the blood glucose levels stable. Insulin doesn’t cure the condition, but it helps the body to function normally.

Insulin is a critical component of managing a diabetic condition. It’s typically injected into the bloodstream, but in some instances a pump is used. Children frequently are taught to inject themselves so they can learn to manage their condition by themselves. The injections are given several times each day to make sure that glucose doesn’t accumulate in the bloodstream and place a strain on the organs.

Successful management of Type 1 diabetes in children requires that you or your child monitor their blood glucose levels a few times daily. Typically, this involves pricking the finger and evaluating the resultant speck of blood with a monitoring device. There are a number of factors that can influence blood glucose levels, including stress, diet, exercise, and fluctuating hormones. Those with diabetes will have to learn more about how these factors affect them.

Type 1 diabetes in children can be hard for a child and his family to live with. The child will have to keep an eye on his blood glucose levels and have insulin injections daily for the remainder of his life. Although research is ongoing to discover a cure for this condition, at this point in time all that can be done for those with diabetes is to monitor and treat their condition diligently. The good news is that research in this area has led to improved treatment methods, and most people will enjoy a good quality of life for a long time to come.

Who Is At Risk?

Diabetes is becoming a very common condition in the western world. More and more people are at risk and it is a a good idea for anybody over 40 to have their blood sugar levels tested from time to time. These are the main risk factors:

Weight – type 2 diabetes is closely related to being overweight, especially where there is obesity. However, type 1 diabetics tend to be of normal weight or even under weight, and type 2 can develop in normal weight people too.

Age – type 2 diabetes is much more likely in middle aged or elderly people. Until recently there were virtually no children or adolescents with type 2, which is why type 1 is often called childhood diabetes. But these days it is possible for people of any age to develop type 2, even children, especially if they are very overweight.

Hypertension – having high blood pressure or hypertension increases the risk of developing diabetes. It also increases the danger of suffering serious complications, so you should keep a check on your blood glucose if you have high blood pressure.

Sedentary lifestyle – lack of exercise can make people more likely to develop diabetes. Often this goes along with being very overweight.

Certain endocrinological diseases – if you suffer from certain other conditions including metabolic syndrome or Cushing’s disease, there is an increased risk of developing diabetes. Medical professionals will be aware of this and you are almost certainly being tested regularly if you have one of these conditions.

What Are The Symptoms?

The earliest type 2 diabetes symptoms usually include feeling tired, weak, lacking in energy and perhaps generally unwell. This is likely to worsen over a period of several weeks. Also, look out for any of the following additional symptoms which are often present as diabetes develops:

- frequent urination, with a lot of urine being produced.
- feeling very thirsty and drinking more than usual.
- losing weight without trying.
- blurred vision.
- genital itching.

Of course, many of these are symptoms that you might feel in relation to other diseases or even if you are not sick at all. They do not always mean that you have diabetes. However, diabetes could be indicated, especially if you are in one or more of the risk groups listed above.

Anyway, it is easy to test blood glucose levels either with a home testing kit or at the doctor’s office, so if you think that you have type 2 diabetes symptoms go ahead and have yourself tested.

Why Grains Should Be Whole In A Type 2 Diabetes Diet

Whole grains including whole wheat products should always be selected over white because they are unrefined and so contain the natural fiber that is removed from white wheat, rice and other grains. Grains contain a high amount of carbohydrate and in white grain products, this is very quickly digested and converted to glucose in the body, which can cause an increase in your blood sugar levels.

The fiber in whole grains delays absorption and so makes unrefined carbs much healthier. Fiber is good for just about everybody but it is particularly important for diabetics because of the help that it gives in regulating blood sugar following a meal.

How To Increase The Potency Of Whole Grains

When we buy foods that are the seeds of a plant, they usually come dried. This includes whole grains like rice, millet and quinoa, dried beans, seeds and some nuts. These foods contain growth inhibitors in their dried state, so that they do not sprout when the conditions are too dry for them to have a chance of growing.

Where the germ has not been removed or damaged by refining or excessive heat (e.g. some nuts are cooked or heated high to be shelled), you can make these foods more healthy to eat by soaking them before you cook them. This revitalizes them. The growth inhibitors are washed out into the soaking water (which you should throw away) and many proteins and other healthy nutrients begin to develop as the grain prepares to germinate and sprout.

Different foods require different soaking times. As a general rule, soak rice and most beans for 8 hours or overnight, and lentils and seeds for 2-4 hours.

You can test if the germ is still healthy in the varieties of dried grains, beans and seeds that you buy. Just follow instructions for sprouting that particular food. If a sprout begins to grow on most of them, you have a good variety. If not, try another brand.

Pre Soaked Brown Rice: The Magical Ingredient In A Type 2 Diabetes Diet

Brown rice that has been soaked before cooking has an extra special ingredient that may actually reduce the damage to nerves and blood vessels associated with diabetes, according to research published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism.

This is supported by research in the Journal of Lipid Research which suggested that brown rice that has been germinated by pre soaking can help to normalize blood sugar levels. It also helps to boost the neurotransmitter known as GABA, which experts say can lower blood pressure. Since high blood pressure is associated with both the development of type 2 diabetes and a risk of strokes and other vascular problems, this can have huge benefits for diabetics.

So start soaking your brown rice! One portion a day, soaked and then cooked, could make all the difference when included in a type 2 diabetes diet.

Type 1 is insulin dependent diabetes. It occurs when the beta cells in the area of the pancreas called the Islets of Langerhans stop being able to produce insulin. The causes of this are not entirely known, but it is believed to be a combination of infection, possibly a virus, and a genetic predisposition that is inherited. It often starts in childhood or adolescence which is why it is sometimes called juvenile diabetes, but it can develop in adults too.

Insulin regulates blood sugar levels, allowing a more or less regular supply of sugar to be released into the blood. This prevents us becoming either hypoglycemic (not enough sugar in the bloodstream to feed the brain) or hyperglycemic (too much sugar in the blood), both of which can be very serious and in some cases cause death. So if a person’s body lacks the ability to produce its own insulin, the person must take insulin, usually by injection. It cannot be consumed in the form of tablets because it would be digested and not reach the bloodstream that way.

Option 1: Transplant

The only complete type 1 diabetes cure is to receive a new pancreas or section of the pancreas by transplant. There is no other way to renew the cells that should be producing insulin, if they no longer work. However, many experts believe that the possible complications of a transplant outweigh the inconveniences of living with the disease so transplants are not often recommended. The disease is managed by a combination of insulin and careful diet to maintain normal levels of glucose in the blood.

Option 2: Diet

Type 2 diabetes can quite often be managed entirely with diet but this is because people with type 2 are still producing some insulin of their own. If they spread their food intake through the day and avoid high sugar and high fat foods, in many cases they can reach a point where their pancreas is able to cope. If not, they can take drugs to help manage it. However, this is not usually the case with type 1 where no insulin is being produced at all.

There have been anecdotal reports of people with type 1 diabetes who claim to have been able to normalize their blood sugar by following a special diet, to the point where they no longer need insulin at all. One example is Sergei Boutenko, the son of well known raw food writer Victoria Boutenko, whose family went on a raw food diet in an attempt to cope with the various different health problems of several family members after Sergei developed type 1 diabetes at the age of nine. The Boutenkos claim that Sergei never experienced any more diabetic symptoms after beginning to follow a 100% raw diet.

However, this cannot really be described as a cure for type 1 diabetes because the body has not begun producing insulin again. It is in fact a remission, and it would be possible that diabetic symptoms would recur in the future, especially if the person’s diet changed. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a type 1 diabetes cure you could consider looking into the raw food diet, subject of course to medical advice.

A tendency to develop childhood diabetes is thought to be inherited, but the disease is not triggered in everybody who carries the gene, so you may be unaware that this genetic factor exists in your family. Of course if you know that there is diabetes in your family or your spouse’s family, then you should be particularly conscious of the symptoms of diabetes in children in relation to your own kids. But most of the children diagnosed with diabetes do not have any close family members who have the disease.

Childhood diabetes cases have been rising in the last few decades. This is partly because, as people in the western world grow heavier, obesity-related type 2 diabetes has been seen in children almost for the first time. However, there has also been an increase in type 1. This may be due to the genetic component and the fact that people with type 1 diabetes are now surviving and having children, which was less likely in the past. Or it could be that another factor has become more widespread, such as a virus that may trigger the disease in some children who already have a genetic predisposition.

The main symptoms of diabetes in children are the same as diabetic symptoms in adults. They usually develop over a few weeks and they include:

- being extra thirsty.
- many visits to the bathroom to pass urine.
- weight loss.
- tiredness.

Children also often show some symptoms that are not so likely to appear in adults:

- stomach pains.
- headaches.
- behavioral problems.

If you think that your child has some of these symptoms and may be diabetic, you should seek medical advice right away. Testing is very quick and simple. The health professional will take a small sample of the child’s blood, usually from a fingertip, and use a spot test to check whether there is an abnormally high level of glucose in the blood.

If type 1 diabetes develops without anybody being aware of it and it is not treated, it will usually lead to the child becoming more and more tired, often with strange behavior patterns. It will probably be clear that there is something wrong with the child and most parents take their kids to the doctor at that point. If not, the child will eventually go into a coma. This requires immediate hospitalization so that the blood sugar can be brought back to normal under medical supervision.

Childhood diabetes is a well recognized disease and can be managed with insulin so that most kids lead a normal life. However, if untreated it is life threatening, so it is important to be aware of the symptoms of diabetes in children and take medical advice if you think your child may have developed diabetes.

People can often recover from pre-diabetes through careful management of their food intake so that their blood sugar returns to normal levels. Even some people with diagnosed type 2 diabetes are able to do this. This is a highly desirable thing to do because living with diabetes has long term dangers for other areas of your health including problems with vision, vascular problems including heart attacks and strokes, and also a risk of kidney failure. Good management of blood glucose levels through diet can put diabetes into remission which reduces the risk of many of these complications.

Patients will almost always be advised by their doctor to see a dietician to set up a personalized diet plan. It is important to check back regularly to report on how things are going and tweak the plan to take account of changes in your general health and lifestyle as well as glucose levels.

Even though this condition is often related to being overweight, it is not a great idea to try to lose weight fast. Crash diets cause big swings in blood sugar levels which can be very dangerous for diabetics whose bodies are not equipped to deal with them.

Unless your medical practitioner advises otherwise, your aim should be to keep your weight steady in the beginning. When you have adjusted to the new foods and restrictions that you will be advised to apply, you will probably find that your weight automatically stabilizes and perhaps begins to fall slowly. A loss of 10 to 20 pounds a year is fine.

Most new diabetics are recommended to eat more of the following foods:

- starchy carbs, especially whole grains (brown rice, whole grain bread, etc)
- vegetables
- most fruits

And to cut out or restrict the following foods:

- sugar and anything containing it (check labels)
- fruit juices
- fats
- alcohol
- salt

Some fruits such as bananas and mangoes are very sweet but can usually be eaten in normal quantities at the end of a meal. Don’t eat a lot of sweet fruit or eat it alone. If you do eat foods with a high glycemic index, it is important to take them with fibrous foods to slow down the impact of the sugars in the food on the blood. That is why whole fruits are often okay for most people following a sugar diabetes diet but fruit juices are not.

Diabetes is a disease in which the levels of glucose in the blood rise above normal because the body’s usual regulatory mechanism, involving insulin, is not working correctly. This may be because the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin have been damaged or destroyed by an auto immune response (type 1 diabetes) or because the body has become resistant to insulin and the pancreas cannot keep up with the demand (type 2 diabetes).

Either way, the test for diabetes involves testing the levels of sugar in the blood. This is quite simple. In most cases it involves taking a drop of blood from the fingertip and using some form of analysis to see how much sugar it contains.

Home testing kits usually include a lancet (a special kind of sterilized needle on a spring, with which you can accurately and almost painlessly prick your finger) and some testing paper. The paper will change color when blood is added, and you compare the color to a provided chart to see whether your blood sugar is in the normal range.

For a more accurate result, a digital blood glucose meter will read the testing paper and give you a result. This type of kit is more likely to be used by health professionals.

Most tests for diabetes are done before meals (at least two hours after last eating, best done in the morning). This is called a fasting blood glucose test. Normal results are between 4.2 and 6.2 mmol/litre.

Results between 6.2 and 7.7 mmol/litre may indicate a person who is pre-diabetic or at risk of developing diabetes, but this is not so high that diabetes would be diagnosed right now. Over 7.7 mmol/litre may indicate that you have diabetes. In either case you should see a doctor or other medical professional right away to have another test. They will probably test you before and after consuming a high glucose drink, to see how your body reacts to sugar.

There are other factors that can affect blood glucose levels, including other conditions such as anemia and gout. Weather conditions and altitude can also make a difference. High blood sugar is not always related to diabetes. But this is a serious condition so abnormal results should be checked out.

Consult your health care provider if you think you may have diabetes or if you have any further questions about how to test for diabetes.

Gestational diabetes is diagnosed when women who have not been diabetic before develop diabetes during pregnancy. Most pregnant women are tested for it as a matter of routine. It happens because the needs of the baby for glucose, which provides energy, interfere with the body’s normal insulin-based regulatory mechanism. If you maintain close contact with your health care provider during your pregnancy and take any medications that they prescribe as well as following the gestational diabetes diet plan that they will help you to formulate, there is every chance that you will have a normal birth with a healthy baby. The diabetes often goes away when the baby is born.

The main principles of a diet plan for pregnant women with diabetes are the same as for other forms of diabetes:

1. Avoid refined sugars, including high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and any foods that contain them.

2. Replace sugared desserts with fresh fruit.

3. Eat regularly, with smaller meals and healthy snacks spread evenly through the day.

4. Choose whole grains over refined grains, e.g. brown rice over white rice, bread and pasta made from whole wheat flour instead of white. This adds fiber to your diet which helps to delay the absorption of the natural sugars present in whole foods.

5. Eat more vegetables, both to fill you up and to increase your intake of fiber, vitamins and minerals.

6. Manage your carbohydrate intake. This does not necessarily mean eating fewer carbs, but it is important not to eat too much at the same time. Spread carbs through the day and be sure to eat a little before going to sleep and soon after waking in the morning.

7. You may be advised to cut down on fatty foods, especially if you were overweight before the pregnancy began or have gained more weight than expected during the pregnancy.

Most gestational diabetes diet plans will involve counting carbohydrates in some way. You will either be advised to eat a certain number of carbohydrate grams at each meal, with some flexibility of course, or you will be taught an exchange system where each food has a certain value.

We cannot give specific figures here because individual diabetics have different requirements of carbs and other foods. Diabetes can be a dangerous condition and it is vital that your individual case is managed correctly. If you do not understand the gestational diabetes diet plan that you have been given, do not rely on information from websites but check back with your health care provider.

1. Causes

Diabetes mellitus of either type 1 or type 2 is a condition where the body either does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels, or does not respond adequately to insulin, or both. If it is not treated, this causes an excess of sugar or glucose in the blood, leading to complications. Eventually, if severe and left untreated, it would cause death.

In type 1, the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin are lost, so the body simply cannot produce the amount of insulin that a normal person needs. Often the cells are destroyed by an autoimmune attack, probably as the result of a virus. People who develop type 1 tend to be otherwise generally healthy and of normal weight.

In type 2, the cause is usually a combination of reduced insulin production and the body becoming insulin resistant so it does not effectively use the insulin that it has. This is often associated with middle or old age, hypertension, and/or being significantly overweight.

In both cases, heredity also plays a part. Some people seem to be genetically disposed to develop diabetes. Type 1 diabetes comes on without warning and prevention may not be possible, although some studies suggest that vitamins D and B3 may play a part.

Type 2 is usually preceded a period of pre-diabetes where symptoms are not so severe. If you have type 2 diabetes in the family, you are over 40 and either you have high blood pressure or you are overweight, you should have your blood sugar tested from time to time. If symptoms are caught early you may be able to avoid developing full diabetes.

2. Age of onset

Type 1 is often called juvenile diabetes because it often begins in children and adolescents and usually comes on quite suddenly without warning. Type 2 more often develops later in life and can be preceded by a long period of pre-diabetes where symptoms exist but not to the point where diabetes would be diagnosed.

It is possible for children to develop type 2 and also for adults to develop type 1, so this is not a true difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. However, the fact remains that most diabetic children have type 1, even though type 1 accounts for only 10% of the diabetic population.

3. Treatment

Type 1 diabetes is usually treated with insulin injections. Patients are likely to have to inject insulin for the rest of their lives unless they have a pancreas transplant.

Type 2 diabetes can often be controlled with a combination of dietary modifications and oral medication. In some cases, diet alone is enough to manage it. In others, insulin injections become necessary at some point. However, type 2 is generally easier to manage because the body is still producing some insulin in most cases.

All diabetics need to monitor their blood sugar and try to follow certain dietary guidelines to avoid blood glucose spikes.

4. Psychological factors

Generally speaking, people with type 1 diabetes feel that they have a very different condition and often like to make this clear. Because of the differences in causes, particularly the fact that weight plays a part in type 2 but not type 1, there can be a perception that type 2 is avoidable and therefore to some extent the fault of the sufferer, while type 1 is not seen that way. Although this is only a perception and not a true difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, it is important to be sensitive to these feelings when dealing with diabetics of either type.

Most diabetic cookie recipes involve using artificial sweeteners. Just about all of the artificial sweeteners available on the market today have raised some concerns about health risks. Often this is to do with what happens to laboratory rats who are fed on very high quantities of the sweeteners. Whether you want to let this worry you is up to you, but it may be a good idea not to indulge in huge amounts of artificial sweeteners. Instead, let your taste buds return to enjoying the natural sweetness of whole foods, as they did before sugar corrupted us to expect a very high level of sweetness.

When choosing a sweetener, check that it is suitable for baking. Aspartame loses its sweetness at high temperatures so avoid any products that are based on aspartame. Others are fine. The packet will tell you. Depending on your diet plan you may be able to use a blend which may be 50% sugar.

I love this recipe for diabetic peanut butter cookies with its mix of sweet and savory tastes. You can try it with less or more sweetener according to taste.

Peanut Butter Diabetic Cookies

0.5 cup sugar free peanut butter (experiment with creamy or crunchy styles)
1.25 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 cup margarine
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
equivalent of 0.5 cup sugar

Margarine should be soft (not straight from the refrigerator). Mix all ingredients except for the flour into the margarine, then slowly add the flour. The dough should be crumbly but you can add a splash of water if it is too dry.

Make 1 inch balls of dough and place them on a baking sheet. Press down with the base of a glass to flatten them to about a half inch thickness. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes.

If you have diabetic kids, why not teach them to make these diabetic cookies for themselves? That way they will have a treat that they can prepare themselves and share with others in the family if they choose to. It is going to be important that your diabetic child understands how to prepare the right kind of food to manage his or her condition, so starting to learn to cook is important for both boys and girls. Just be sure that all food consumed, including diabetic cookies, is included in the day’s eating plan.