• Your BMI
• Losing Weight
• Healthy Living
• Q & A
• Helpful Links
• Diabetes News

Welcome back to Access Digest. This month the holidays are upon us, and we face some important lifestyle decisions about healthy eating. It should be no surprise that there is a strong link between diabetes and excess weight. But there is a lot that we can do about it, starting with knowing our Body Mass Index, or BMI. Then we can examine our eating habits, making sure we don't ignore them during this busy season. Eating responsibly may mean using smaller portions more often in order to increase metabolism and burn food faster. You don't have to starve yourself. The right approach may not only prevent your diabetes from worsening; it can improve your overall condition. The time to make your New Year's resolution is now!

We can take a proactive, healthy approach to eating during the holidays -- and all year round. This month's recipe for roast turkey is a good example.

As always, when you see "Read More" at the end of an article, or something that is underlined, you can click on it to be linked to another Web site where you'll find more information. When you find a site that you may want to visit again in the future, you can bookmark it.

Your Body Mass Index (BMI)

Body Mass Index or BMI is a tool for indicating weight status in adults. It is a ratio of your weight to your height. For adults over 20 years old, BMI represents weight status as follows:

BMI helps show the effect your body weight can have on disease and death. As your BMI increases, your risk for some diseases increases too. Some of these conditions include:

• Premature death
• Cardiovascular disease
• High blood pressure
• Osteoarthritis
• Some cancers
• Diabetes

Click on the link below for a BMI Calculator that can quickly show you what your BMI is.

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Now that you know your BMI, how about lowering that number? Losing weight and keeping it off is a real challenge, but it certainly can be done. This does not call for a crash diet -- it means replacing old habits with new ones. Losing even a relatively small amount of weight can make a real improvement in your health and your risk for other serious conditions. That first step can lead to an important lifestyle change -- and even more weight loss.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) offers several suggestions that can help you lose weight and take better care of your diabetes. They publish a series of Tip Sheets on important topics such as Getting Motivated, Food & Portion Size, and Healthy Eating.

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One of these topics deals with the portions of food we eat. If you want to lose weight, cutting calories is a good place to start. This does not mean you have to stop eating your favorite foods. It does mean eating less, but you don't have to starve yourself or go hungry.

“Portion control” means first determining how much you currently eat, then deciding how much you need to eat, and finally, cutting back on portion size. 

A handy Food & Activity Tracker may show that you actually eat much more than you thought! A serving size guideline lists the right portion of foods for healthy eating, such as meat, fish, and poultry – 3 oz. (about the size of the palm of your hand), and cheese – 1 oz. (about the size of your thumb), and so forth.

This exercise may show you that your current serving sizes are much bigger than necessary. If so, it’s time to make a change! Get started by using measuring cups and spoons to serve your food. After a while, you’ll be able to “eyeball” the right amounts.

Don't feel bad and think you have to lose a lot of weight. You may only have to shed 5 to 10 pounds to better manage your diabetes.

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Knowing how to read and understand nutrition labels on food packaging can help you make wiser choices. The Nutrition Facts listed on most foods provide the serving size and amount of nutrients such as fat, cholesterol, sodium, sugar, fiber, and carbohydrates.

It's very important to pay close attention to the serving size. Most labels indicate the serving size in grams. Some also include a conversion to cups, ounces, pieces, "sprigs" or other familiar measurements.

TIP: If the label contains only a measurement by grams (g), you can convert any measurement by visiting the Google site at www.google.com. For example, to convert grams to ounces, you would enter the following:

     Search words in Google:  100 grams to ounces 
     Google will respond with: 100 grams = 3.52739619 ounces
     or, if you converted ounces to grams:
     Search words in Google:  6 ounces to grams 
     Google will respond with:  6 ounces = 170.097139 grams

In addition to the nutritional information included on the label, the actual ingredients are shown in descending order by weight - the highest to the lowest. If you see sugar as the first ingredient, it has the most grams.

Select the link below for more specific information regarding nutritional labels on food...

More info

The holidays are not a time to put healthy eating "on vacation". On the contrary, in the weeks ahead there are several things you can do to avoid putting on any extra pounds. This is a good time to get started on some lifestyle changes with long term benefits.

Research shows that obese people are more likely to have a number of cardiovascular-related disorders, including hypertension, blood clots and congestive heart failure -- not to mention cancer, degenerative joint disease, and gallbladder disease. Many suffer from elevated blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea, and of course Type 2 diabetes.

No matter what season it is, prevention needs to start immediately.

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This month our featured recipe is a great holiday tradition -- roast turkey! Turkey is an ideal low-calorie, low-cholesterol food. And that cranberry sauce you love can be replaced with the real deal -- whole cranberries.

Below are a few of the typical questions our customer care department has answered on this month's theme. Each question is linked to a Web site that gives an answer and provides more detail. We hope you find this section helpful.