The Prediabetes Diet Plan: How to Reverse Prediabetes and Prevent Diabetes through Healthy Eating and Exercise

A practical, empowering guide to managing and reversing prediabetes through diet and exercise, from a registered dietitian. 

Affecting 79 million Americans, prediabetes often develops into full-blown type 2 diabetes, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Increasingly diagnosed by doctors, prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are elevated, but not yet high enough to be labeled diabetes. While diabetes cannot be cured, prediabetes can be reversed, so it is critical to take action at an early stage.

In straightforward, jargon-free language, The Prediabetes Diet Plan explains insulin resistance (the underlying cause of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes) and offers a comprehensive strategy of diet and lifestyle change, which has been proven more effective than medication. With sections on meal planning, grocery shopping, dining out, supplements, and exercise, this book empowers you to make healthier everyday choices that can effect real change on your insulin levels and overall well-being.

“This excellent introduction for readers recently diagnosed with (or at risk for) prediabetes will also interest readers with other forms of insulin resistance.”
—Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
 
“Whether readers are looking for a prediabetes diet plan or for a no-nonsense strategy to better health, this book delivers.”
—Publishers Weekly

 “At long last—a practical, positive, and informative guide for people who have prediabetes. The Prediabetes Diet Plan reflects Hillary Wright’s long-standing expertise as a registered dietitian and educator. Her book is engaging, taking complex topics and making them easily understandable. The positive, upbeat nature of Hillary’s book will empower and encourage anyone who is struggling to prevent diabetes and live a healthier life. It’s a must-have resource for anyone who’s at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.”
—Amy P. Campbell, MS, RD, CDE, manager, Clinical Education Programs, Joslin Diabetes Center
 
“Readers are likely to discover the answers to any questions they may have about prediabetes in this book. But it’s Hillary Wright’s advice on making lifestyle changes that’s the real value here. Hillary provides readers with important and practical suggestions on how and what lifestyle changes are important for the prevention of diabetes. The message to the reader is—read and do!”
—Marion J. Franz, MS, RD, CDE, diabetes educator and nutrition/health consultant at Nutrition Concepts by Franz, Inc.

HILLARY WRIGHT is a registered and licensed dietitian with more than two decades of experience counseling clients on diet and lifestyle change. She is the director of nutrition counseling for the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she specializes in diabetes prevention and women’s health issues. She also holds a part-time position as a nutritionist for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and is the author of The PCOS Diet Plan: A Natural Approach to Health for Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Hillary holds a bachelor’s degree in human nutrition from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a master’s of education in health education from Boston University.

Foreword
More than 26 million Americans have diabetes, so it’s likely that you know someone with the condition, perhaps a family member or friend. Diabetes has serious health consequences, and it garners considerable attention from the medical community and the media. Prediabetes, the forerunner to diabetes, gets less press, but has recently come into its own and is being recognized as a force to be reckoned with.
     While the number of Americans with diabetes is nothing to quibble about, more than three times as many people—an estimated 79 million— have prediabetes. With prediabetes, blood sugar (glucose) is higher than normal, but not yet elevated enough to be considered diabetes. Prediabetes may be symptom-free, and it’s likely most people won’t know that they have it until they take a blood test.
    In spite of the somewhat disarming terminology, there’s nothing “pre” about prediabetes, which, like diabetes, increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. Some experts argue that prediabetes and diabetes are actually one and the same condition, because harmful health effects from high blood sugar progress with time. In fact, about half of the people with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes within ten years as their blood sugar levels creep upward.
    The news isn’t all bad, however. Today’s prediabetes diagnosis need not become tomorrow’s diabetes, nor does prediabetes necessarily have to play havoc with your health in any other way. There is hope for reversing prediabetes and preventing diabetes. That’s the essence of The Prediabetes Diet Plan.
    If you, or a loved one, have been advised to lower your blood sugar, you’ve come to the right book. Hillary Wright is a compassionate and experienced dietitian with an obvious passion for prevention. It will seem as though she is speaking directly to you in her warm, conversational tone when explaining the details of prediabetes and diabetes and how best to manage your health. As a highly skilled communicator, Hillary dishes up scientific evidence in easy-to-understand terms, an absolute must for understanding what’s happening with your body.
    Knowledge is power, but knowing what to do doesn’t always mean you’ll do it. As a registered dietitian who happens to have several relatives with type 2 diabetes, I am all too aware of how difficult it can be to change your eating habits, even when a better diet would greatly improve your health. The Prediabetes Diet Plan leaves no stone unturned on the topics of prediabetes and diabetes, but it also goes to great lengths to help you jumpstart your journey to better health and keep you, and the rest of your household, on the right path.
    I especially appreciate the way Hillary avoids preaching about what you should do for better health. She goes out of her way to avoid giving one-size-fits-all advice about weight control, healthy eating, and blood sugar management. Hillary embraces difference, and, in that vein, presents reasonable, real-life scenarios to help guide lifestyle choices.
    Consumers and health professionals alike should thank Hillary Wright for her laser focus on prediabetes, a condition that’s become a personal burden for millions of Americans, as well as a financial strain on the health care system. Prediabetes, you’re finally getting the attention you deserve!
 
 
Elizabeth M. Ward, MS, RD
Author, MyPlate for Moms, How to Feed Yourself & Your Family Better