Living well with diabetes

Your daily diet can help regulate the disease - here's how

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November is the diabetes awareness month, a month set aside to focus on this disease that affects more than 830 million people worldwide. In all forms of diabetes (type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes), the body's ability to make or properly use insulin is affected.

Insulin is a hormone that is made by the pancreas, and it helps your cells store and use energy from food. If you have diabetes, glucose collects in the blood but doesn’t get transported into the cells. Thus, your body is not getting the energy it needs. Also, the high levels of glucose circulate throughout the body, damaging cells along the way. Diabetes increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke and may lead to kidney, eye and nerve damage.