Keep Your Blood Sugar Levels Under Control To Be Healthy

The way people in the developed world eat and live have combined to produce an epidemic new disease called diabetes. Overeating, sweet, highly refined carbohydrate foods, lack of proper exercise and stress all contribute to this condition.

Our levels of blood glucose levels tend to increase as we get older and insulin becomes less effective at bringing these levels down. This creeping blood sugar intolerance is one of the most devastating changes associated with getter older and in turn it causes accelerated aging and increases risk of disease.

In a youthful healthy body when your blood sugar levels rise, insulin quickly lowers it and glucose is stored and retrieved easily. When your insulin works correctly, it keeps your blood sugar at a constant moderate level which gives you constant sustained energy throughout the day both physically and mentally.

But more than half the calories we eat these days come from refined carbohydrates and sugars. Examples of these unnatural foods are breads, breakfast cereals, sugar, sweets, soft drinks, cakes, biscuits, fruit juice, pasta, pastries, white rice and jams.

These foods shoot the blood glucose levels to an unhealthy level immediately after a meal. Although you may feel good and have plenty of energy, soon after you are likely to experience hunger pangs, low energy and negative moods such as anxiety and depression.

There is a very easy way around this problem and it involves a regular exercise program that involves mostly strength training exercise. By working the muscles this stimulates muscle cells to utilize glucose from the blood. This can transform a previously insufficient amount of insulin into an adequate amount to transport the glucose to the muscle cells where it can be burnt for fuel instead of remaining in the blood stream causing damage.

It is important to note that strength training exercise is the only activity that will do this job properly. Recreational activities such as walking, jogging or cycling do not work the muscles through their full ranges of motion and do not build or maintain the major muscle groups of the body. The best thing you can do for yourself is to build healthy new muscle tissue. This will act as a blood sugar sink, using up excess blood glucose every minute of the day and night.

Strength training exercise is especially critical to reinvigorating your body's glucose tolerance and increasing your muscles insulin sensitivity. This will lower your diabetes risk and help to lower body fat and improve your body composition (muscle/fat ratio) to a healthier level.

We now know that insulin is perhaps the most important hormone in the body when it comes to how well you age and how long you live. With your regular strength training program you now have the key to a longer and healthier life.