To contain diabetes, study wants every Malawian to consume more fruits and vegetables
A daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, even when you are diabetic or not, is a simple healthier lifestyle you need to keep you healthy when diabetic or to save from being diabetic.
This is some of the recommendations from a College of Medicine study done by researchers Adamson S. Muula, professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Chimwemwe Kwanjo Banda, a PhD fellow at Public Health and Family Medicine.
Other studies done in sub-Saharan Africa also suggest that many people in Malawi and Sub-Saharan Africa could be at risk of preventable diseases due to unhealthy diets.
In their study—conducted using people attending a diabetes clinic in Blantyre—Professor Muula and Kwanjo Banda wanted to understand how the said people were managing their diet and also how to identify factors that enabled or prevented healthy eating habits.
Their study showed that many people with diabetes did not follow a healthy diet, or only started eating healthy food after being diagnosed with diabetes.
Part of the reason, according to the study, is that adjusting to a healthy diet was a challenge for many.
One female participant in the study told researchers that it is not easy to just stop eating foods you are used to abruptly.
“You wake up one day, they test you, and on the same day they tell you to stop eating this, this and that. Impossible! Let’s not cheat ourselves that it is possible right away,” she said.
The study also noted that that to reduce the prevalence of diabetes in Malawi, efforts to promote healthy eating should target the entire population and not only people who have diabetes.
The study concurs with World Health Organization which recommends that interventions to promote healthy eating habits should target the entire population and not only those that have diabetes or other non-communicable diseases.
However, as way forward both with regards to those with diabetes facing dietary challenges and the general population, the study notes that media and educational campaigns conducted in other countries like the US, Australia and Pakistan reported success in increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
“A study in India showed that taxing sugar-sweetened beverages could reduce obesity and prevent occurrence of type 2 diabetes,” reads the study.
Professor Muula and Kwanjo Banda recommend that education on healthy diet and its benefits be intensified through the media and schools to increase public awareness.
“Another strategy is to subsidize the cost of production of fruits and vegetables to make them more easily available to consumers,” reads the study.
Muula and Kwanjo Banda note that the advantage of population based interventions is that they are cost effective and they benefit everyone regardless of whether they have diabetes or not.
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We need to grow more organic fruits to support this. Otherwise the price of fruits is prohibitive
I think we need just awareness, much research has been done already…and we just need to contemplate on what alternative best local foods can be consumed considering kuti nsima is the most affordable and fruits timangodyela season….komabe tithokoze for ur study.
masamu ndiotani mukawerengera anthu a mm8dzife ndi anadya nyama sausage chips?
lelo kutiuza tizidya masamba? kunoko?
Tatopa nawo masamba ndi mango ife ndiye akuti tizidzidya more fruits and veggies?
I am a medical doctor, a Diabetes Specialist practicing for over 40 years. To my demise, I am also diabetic.
Let me commend and applaud the organisers of this study, our nation needs more knowledge and support regarding this deadly condition.
I however feel compelled to mention that NOT all fruits are good for you though and if you are diabetic you really need to be careful with your fruit intake. In as much as fruits are a great source of fibre, they also contain high levels of glucose which is not good for managing diabetes. The intake of any fruits MUST be highly regulated in people living with the condition. Go for fruits that are low in sugar and even so, NEVER eat too much of it at once.
It’s so hard to advise patients which fruits to be taking as the reaction can be different from person to person. The best think to do is to find what low sugar fruits works for you as an individual and as I shared, even then DON’T over them. Here are some fruits that I personally find high in sugar and you may want to really stay away from:
1. Grapes
2. Watermelons
3. Oranges
4. Sugarcane (not necessarily a fruit)
As one of the attendees pointed out, it is indeed difficult to just wake up one day and you are told to stop eating most the food you have grown to like over many years but let’s put things in perspective, where life is concerned, we must make such adjustments and sacrifices as a matter of urgency. Diabetes is really a dangerous condition, apart from making one ill, it aggressively damages body organs at an alarming rate which can be fatal if not managed properly.
Here are a few tips to help manage the condition:
1. Exercise daily. Make exercising your daily routine and commit to it. You don’t need to lift weights, run, or anything strenuous – you can just be walking, at least for 30min each day. This will work wonders for you.
2. Be consistent with your diet. Know which foods you need to stay away from through your sugar levels.
3. Try to take your medication at the same times every day. Don’t have too much time variations on when you take your daily medication.
4. Avoid foods that are slow to release energy in your body. Food like nsima yoyela, white bread, pizza, rice, pasta – These are not good for you.
Healthy living to all.
Well put….
Well-said. May I humbly ask that you write an article on this? Your views here are priceless and would really help.
@Peloma – Thanks for your kind words. Nowadays. I just wanted to share my diabetic experiences with anyone who may be interested. To encourage diabetic patients to be eating a lot of fruits, it’s absolutely a no no. Not all fruits are good for you and even those that are, don’t eat a lot of them. Where possible restrict yourself to one fruit a day and make sure it’s a fruit that’s not high in glucose. Things like pineapples, tangerines and the likes that shared in my previous post, they are not ideal for a diabetic person.
Diabetes is one of the most deadly conditions in our midst. What’s even more interesting is the fact that there are too many numerous variations of the illness and how it differently affects individuals. So, at a high level patients are placed in two categories once diagnosed: There is type A and Type B. But within these two categories there are way so so many variations between individuals that are classified in the same category. What I mean is that also although two individuals can be diagnosed to be in the same diabetic category, they will have their own individuals differences that demands some carefully calculated medical plan to find the right balance of treatment that’s suitable for each specific patient. It’s almost like a finger print scenario where at high level we can be classified in two categories, either Male or Female but even in these categories, we then each have unique finger prints – I hope you get the analogy.
This uniqueness in complexity of patient effect places a huge challenge to clinicians as the medication and treatment plan for each person needs to be adjusted to the correct type, routine and measurements to fit the individual needs for each patient. There is no one size fits all approach and even when the clinicians think that they have found the right balance for the patient, there is need for regular checkups to determine how the body is coping with the treatment. Diabetic medication is extremely strong and if abused it can easily cause very terrible effects leading to fatality. Also, remember that as human beings, our cells mutate and this can cause regressive reaction that could make the medication not effective enough, hence the need for regular checkups to determine all these possible shifting goal posts during the course of a patient’s treatment- which in the case of diabetes, it’s a life time. Depending on the severity of the condition, other diabetes patients needs weekly checkups. Others monthly and others every six months. It’s absolutely careless to go over six months without any checkup – even when a patient is o treatment, they MUST be regularly monitored. This is an area where personally I would’ve like to see more awareness programs and investment from our government. It would help people kugwilana ufiti unnecessarily and sanitise our conversations around the illness.
One other thing to share with you is that due to this complexity of individualised effects and uniquely individualised treatments is one of the major researches around the disease. For many many years the medical world continues to struggle with diabetes research to resolve this complexity. The research tries to understand the disease better. I know that sounds stupid coz to many people they think that everything is already known about the disease. Well, the truth is not much is known. These ongoing researches are aimed for specific outcomes. There are many reasons behind these researches but I will only share with you these two:
1. Clinicians would want to know what really causes these unique effects even in patients within the same diagnosis category. Why? Well, If this is known then it would be easy to determine exactly what sort of treatment a patient should be on at a much earlier stage, thereby saving a lot of lives.
2. Clinicians would want to determine the correct treatment measures to try and avoid the negative effects that wrong dosage or levels of diabetes medication has on patients.
This is why it’s important that when you are dealing with a diabetic condition, don’t rush into non prescribed medication or asing’anga nor any non calculated homemade remedies because every medication you will take it will either positively or negatively impact your sugar levels. It is so difficult to maintain consistency in terms of measurements and density of non prescribed medication which can lead to the condition deteriorating quite rapidly.
I have mentioned this point before and I can’t emphasise it enough. Diabetes is a very terrible and dangerous condition. There is no area of your body system that doesn’t get affected. It affects vision, sexuality, muscles, brain focus, digestive system, feet, appetite, kidneys and even emotions and that’s not even the full list – but when you manage it properly and actively, you can be on top of it most days.
Diabetes is one of those diseases that you as a patient or someone trying to stay off it, you MUST actively be present to the treatment plan. Just relying on medication and doctors alone is not enough. There is a lot that you yourself must be in control of for sake of your own life and in addition to the treatment given by doctors. As an individual you need to rise to the occasion and fight for your life, literally. How do you do that? Well, you will need to make drastic changes in your life. It’s a case of life and death you must approach it with the radical approach it deserves.
As I shared in my last post on this subject, I am diabetic. On this note, let me step away from the clinical platform and share a few things with you from my own personal experience as a diabetic person. I was diagnosed with the condition when I least expected it and I was in such a terrible state. Now diabetic readings are done differently in different parts of the world but where I was at the time of diagnosis there were using simple measure to understand – so, a normal person would have a blood glucose reading of between 6-8 before a meal and if it’s above 8, you need to monitor it closely and seek medical attention if it doesn’t drop to normal levels after a few days. But if it’s anything above 11 then you need to seek immediate medical attention and do so urgently. At a point of diagnosis my glucose readings were 34. Dreadful! You need to understand that all my life I have been a very deliberate strong and physically active person. I mean I have always been a human machine, so illness this was a shock but there I was in hospital for a long time. Constantly fainting in front of my wife and two little daughters. I lived in denial for a long time. One day I passed out in the middle of a shop, my body going in shock. I woke up to medical emergency personnels giving me treatment and right in that moment when I woke opened my eyes – I saw the sight of fear in the eyes of my wife and in the eyes of my little girls. In that moment I made a decision – fight! I decided that I was going to take charge and be in control of my treatment. I just knew I had to fight for my own sake. If that wasn’t enough then for the sake of my wife whom I didn’t want to raise my girls without me, if that wasn’t enough, I decided I was going to fight for the sake of my girls. I edge you, find a reason and fight! You have enough reasons to sacrifice for and make the necessary changes to live a better diabetic life when if you are a patient.
In my case here are a few radical changes I made and I can testify that they have had a positive impact on my life:
1. The doctors say don’t drink too much when you are diabetic. I said to myself don’t drink alcohol at ALL! (Not that I was a drinker anyway)
2. The doctors said don’t eat rice too often. I said to myself don’t eat rice at ALL!
3. The doctors said exercise everyday for 30min. I said to myself do 2hours a day.
4. The doctors said don’t drink too much juice? I said don’t drink any juice at ALL!
5. The doctors said only drink half a bottle of soft drinks if you have to. I told myself Never Ever drink any soft drink at ALL! No come, no Fanta, no sobo – non of that at ALL!
6. Doctors said don’t drink too much coffee. I said to myself don’t drink coffee at ALL and not even tea. Only water.
7. They said try to eat brown bread, use brown sugar – I told myself don’t eat bread at ALL! Don’t use any sugar at ALL.
Over the years I have made lots of painful changes that are just too many to share here and I am cautious that I have made my writing way too long already but the point am trying to make is that with diabetes, you MUST make changes, find reasons enough that will motivate you towards making changes. Learn to listen to your body. When you are diabetic, your body ‘speaks’ to you on whenever you eat or drink anything. It doesn’t take long for your body to start communicating about what you are feeding it. Within a few minutes it will either acknowledge or be screaming against it. These signals from your body are very important, learn them, listen to them and always choose what your body acknowledges – it’s your life and it’s worth fighting for.
I wish you all a happy and great wellbeing.
Two things:
much of this is how well do manage our diabetic patients.
AWARENESS!!!!!!!
Be specific and elaborate on DIET.we are becoming a more lazy cultured people. TOO MUCH FATTENING FOODS HENCE 9BESITY IN OUR COUNTRY HAS BECOME A NORM. BY 2050 WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION WILL K8CK IN AND THIS WILL BE THE TOPIC ON THE FRONT PAGES.
timati tik7dya bwino kapena mwanenepa akukusamalani. EISH.
Kudya bwino sikunenepa ai koma kudya the right food.
ku midzi simudzapeza number yaikulu ya ma BP or Diabetes.