Dear Dietitian

My son has pre-diabetes - what should he eat?

My son has been told he has pre-diabetes. What should he eat to ensure he doesn’t get diabetes? He loves chippies and nuts.

The good news is that the Diabetes Prevention Program Study conclusively showed that people with pre-diabetes can prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes by making changes in their diet and increasing their level of physical activity.

Diet and exercise worked better than medication alone. Just 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity, coupled with a 5-10% reduction in body weight, produced a 58% reduction in diabetes.

Chippies and nuts are high fat foods. Fat has twice the energy (calories) of any other food so cutting down on high fat snacks can have a big impact on weight loss.

A big bag of potato chips (190g) contains 67g fat (that's 13½ teaspoons). Chips provide over 4000KJ of energy per bag – nearly 1000 calories.

For healthy food choices . . .

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