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It seems like everybody knows someone who has diabetes.

It could be a friend, relative or even an acquaintance.

That isn’t surprising because diabetes is an epidemic.

In this article, I’ll briefly talk about diabetes, the causes and how you can potentially reverse this through juicing and the right diet.

If my father who is in his early seventies was able to do it you can too.

Disclaimer: These recipes (particularly the first one) are so potent (when combined with medication) that it can excessively lower down blood sugar level to dangerously low levels. Please do your due diligence and have a regular blood test to monitor blood glucose level. These recipes will work best with type-2 diabetes.

If you check out the statistics in Diabetes.org close to 30 million Americans have diabetes and that number is rising with around 1.7 million new cases per year.

As of 2014, over 347 million people worldwide have diabetes, if that number doesn’t scream epidemic I don’t know what will.

This is close to my heart because my father, brother and uncle have diabetes and if I’m not careful I might get it too.

If you want jump straight to the recipes, click here.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition where our bodies have elevated blood sugar levels because of two things – (1) the body does not produce insulin or (2) it does not respond well to insulin.

The first form of diabetes I described is type-1 diabetes, the 2nd which I’ll be talking about here is type-2 diabetes which accounts for 90 to 95% of diabetes cases.

We have to take this condition seriously because once you have it your whole life changes. Depending on the type of diabetes you have, you may either have to have oral medication, insulin shots or both.

When left untreated or undiagnosed this is a silent killer. Severe cases of diabetes can result to heart disease, hypoglycemia, blurred vision, and amputation.

That’s why it is important that we have our regular blood tests even if we are less than 30 years of age because this disease does not choose age. People young and old will be affected by this.

What causes diabetes?

There are five factors that play a role in diabetes (two of which you cannot control).

1. Unhealthy eating habbits

First is an unhealthy lifestyle that includes a diet rich in processed sugar, carbohydrates and red meat. Modern living has brought us a lot of great innovations, unfortunately that includes fast food that is rich in preservatives and high in sugar.

So it is no surprise that people diagnosed with diabetes have had a meteoric rise in the past few decades.

The less processed the food is the better it is for your body.

For example brown rice or wild rice would be a better option than white rice because the later contains a lot of refined carbohydrates.

The later in contrast has lots of fiber complex carbs which is considered slow release carbohydrates – these are digested more slowly preventing your body from producing too much insulin.

2. Lack of exercise

In a study done by the American Physiological Society, lack of exercise lowers the body’s sensitive and/or responsiveness to insulin which is one of the causes of diabetes [source].

Science Direct further reinforces this by stating that increased physical activity lowers the risk of IGT from progressing to type-2 diabetes. In their studies, they found that exercise increases the body’s blood glucose and free fatty acid utilization thus lowering blood glucose levels. In other words, blood glucose and fatty acid is used as energy during physical activity. [source]

3. Genes

The second way of getting diabetes is hereditary. If any of your parents have diabetes, the greater chance you have getting this ailment so you have to be very careful when any of your folks have this ailment.

Watch what you eat closely because it won’t take a lot for your body to have elevated blood sugar levels.

4. Ethnic Background

Third, your ethnic background can also play a role. According to EveryDayHealth.com, Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans are more prone to diabetes but take note that lifestyle factors play a big role like the food they eat, culture, etc.

In contrast to the list above, the Japanese probably have the healthiest diet in the world. Only 4 percent of the population are overweight and if you look closely at what they eat it’s easy to figure out why.

A traditional Japanese dish often starts off with miso soup then followed with a low calorie and high fiber mix of vegetables, fish and seafood. To wash things down, they drink a hot cup of tea instead of a cold soda.

Okinawans have a saying “Hara hachi bu” or eat until you’re 80 percent full so it’s no surprise that there aren’t many overweight Okinawans and they live longer.

In the Philippines where I live, we have a rich and diverse culture and that includes food. Unfortunately a lot of the a lot restaurants here serve foods that are rich in fat, carbohydrates and sugar, if you’re not careful you can get high cholesterol and diabetes over time.

5. Age

Forth, age is also a big factor, the older you get the more prone you will become to acquire this condition. I’ve told you earlier in this article that my dad who is about 72 years old has type-2 diabetes and he isn’t the type who eats a lot of junk food so when I heard about the news I was shocked.

Foods that cause diabetes (eating too much of these may be a triggering factor)

• Drinks that are rich in sugar such as sodas, fruit punch, fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, sweet tea [source]
• Candies, raisins, pancakes (and syrup), French fries, white bread, whole milk, bacon, cakes and pastries, pretzels [source]
• Cereal grains, industrial seed oil, fructose [source]
• White rice, regular pasta, sugary breakfast cereal, white bread, instant oatmeal, corn flakes [source]
• Foods rich in saturated fat like regular ground beef, hot dogs, sausage, spareribs, gravy made from meat drippings, coconut oil, palm oil, poultry skin [source], [source]

The important take away here is having a balanced diet, while you can eat a piece of chocolate cake every now and then, avoid making it a part of your daily diet because it will increase your chances of diabetes.

Yes even if you’re in your 20’s (or younger), you will have to eat everything in moderation.

How to prevent diabetes?

With the right diet and enough exercise, diabetes can be prevented.

According to Harvard School of Public Health you need to do 5 things:

1. Control your weight

First you need to control your weight. Being overweight increases the risk 7 times!

Second you need to get off that lazy boy and increase your physical activity. Not only does exercise improve your muscles’ ability to use insulin and absorb glucose. It also helps you sweat and lose weight by building muscle and reducing fat inside the body.

2. Get off the freakin’ couch and exercise

Even with a simply brisk walk 30 minutes a day lessens the chance of developing type 2 diabetes by 30% [source]! Of course a more intense exercise regimen will reap more benefits, choose a workout program that will suit your fitness level.

Third watch what you eat. This in my opinion is the toughest part because we are so used to eating processed foods and some of them claim to be healthy or “sugar free”.

This can be broken down in 4 parts

Recipes for diabetics (or people with pre-diabetes)

In the recipes first few recipes I will share here there is one common ingredient that is found in most anti-diabetes medication – bitter melon. According to diabetes.co.uk it contains 4 ingredients that help lower blood glucose levels – lectin, charantin, vicine and polypetide-p.