A simple step to stop diabetes

Diabetes is a symptomatic disease: You get it because of a more serious underlying condition … insulin dysfunction. But one basic food ingredient may defeat this illness and put you on a path to optimal health.

All you have to do is eat more dietary fiber.

The number of people in the world suffering with diabetes is expected to reach a staggering 550 million by the year 2030.

Why is that important to you? Because that also translates to a massive increase in people with heart disease, nerve damage and other health issues associated with elevated blood sugar … an easy thing to have happen with the standard diet that’s fed to us.

But an eight-country study supports what many forward-looking researchers have been hawking to the medical establishment for years: Making dietary fiber a primary facet of the diabetes conversation can offer significant health dividends.

Related: I took metformin for a week and this happened

The research shows that fiber’s benefits start to most effectively begin kicking in when you consume more than 26 grams a day. When you consider that an apple has 4 grams of fiber, a cup of raspberries has 8 and a cup of instant oatmeal has 4 grams, you can see that getting that much fiber a day seems like it shouldn’t be that difficult.

The problem is that food companies are so wedded to selling us processed items that have had had the fiber removed, that most people don’t realize what’s been done to their food. That’s why we only average about 15 grams of fiber daily.

Easy ways to get more fiber include:

• If you eat a food made with grains, make sure you eat the whole grain version. Whole grains have most of their fiber intact. Read the label: Make sure a whole grain is listed as the first ingredient.
• Eat your apples with the peels on. That preserves more of the fruit’s fiber.
• Skip vegetable and fruit juice and eat raw vegetables and fruits instead. They have the juice locked into natural fiber that releases the sugar more slowly, and gives you a healthy fiber boost.
• In general, avoid the white versions of grains (white bread, white rice, white pasta) which have had the fiber removed.

When you begin to increase your fiber intake, take it slow. Do it gradually. Your digestive system may need time to get used to the extra fiber. Eat too much fiber too fast and you will probably run into digestive distress.

Type 2 diabetes is the most preventable of all chronic diseases. If you’re pre-diabetic, have a family history or want to turn your health around, you can discover more natural health tips in Dr. Michael Cutler’s book, Forbidden Secrets From Nature’s Pharmacy to Reverse Diabetes and Blood Sugar Problems.