9 Surprising Diabetes Risks
Pages in this Story:
- 1. Watching two hours or more of TV daily
- 2. Drinking one soda a day
- 3. Skipping breakfast
- 4. A bout of major depression
- 5. A large waist -- even if you're at a normal weight
- 6. Waking up in the middle of the night
- 7. Eating fast food more than twice a week
- 8. High stress
- 9. Consuming lots of processed meat (like hot dogs and bacon)
1. Watching two hours or more of TV daily
When it comes to preventing diabetes, exercising and eating healthfully play a big role, but they're not the whole story. A growing body of research is finding that lots of little things can tilt your blood-sugar balance from healthy to diabetic. The happy flip side: They're all risks you can do something about. Here, the big nine -- and your plan of action.
1. Watching two hours or more of TV daily
Raises your risk: 14 percent
How: More TV = Less activity. Women in Harvard's Nurses' Health Study who spent this much time in front of the tube were 23 percent more likely to become obese and 14 percent more likely to develop diabetes.
The fix: Limit TV time to 10 hours a week, and exercise. In the same Harvard study, this reduced diabetes risk by 43 percent.
