By Matt Nilsen

When you eat at home control the ingredients of your meals. Even if you eat a meal that mostly comes from a box, can, or bag, you can read the nutritional information to guide your decision. When you are at a restaurant you have to guess more about nutrition.

The Rotary Club of Santa Monica, created a Web site called Helpguide.org to "empower you and your loved ones to understand, prevent, and resolve health challenges." Their Web entry, Healthy Fast Food: Healthy Restaurant Eating offers some sound advice for making better choices when dinning out.

Since the scientific identified a third cause of type 2 diabetes, we have to ask the question, how do we battle it?  It may be too early for answers, but it is a great time to ask . 

Diabetes is a problem that arises when one or both of the following conditions occur:

1. A person's body cannot make enough insulin.
2. A person's body is not able to use the insulin it produces to process blood sugar

Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile are beautiful countries with people that are warm and sincere. Like most other places in the world, you will find plenty of diabetes in these wonderful countries. A group of insulin dependent triathletes from these counties has banded together to show people living with diabetes that they can be active. They prove that diabetes does not have to hinder athletics, with the proper management. They will swim, run, and cycle before thousands of people to reinforce this message. They just need to monitor and manage their blood sugar.

David Mendosa often tackles the science of diabetes treatments in his writing, but he is at his strongest when he addresses life. That is what he did in his post today, Diabetes is my Lemonade. Before being diagnosed with diabetes, he was not living a lifestyle that was healthy. Now, diabetes compels him to eat right and be active. You will enjoy the picture that he took after summiting an 11,900 foot peak. Pretty good for a 72-year-old.

When you live with diabetes doctors and nutritionists are always telling you what you can't eat. Even diabetes Web sites are notorious for repetitively nagging readers about food. So, you probably have a mental list of tasty, nutritious foods. A 2006 publication has a few suggestions of foods that can help your body rid itself of harmful oxidants.

When you exercise to lose weight, your waist may shrink, but your weight and body mass index (BMI) may not improve. If this frustrates you, let us pass on some information that may put your mind at ease. You are working out so you are building muscle. Gaining muscle weight can offset any loss of fat—especially early on in the weight loss process. Your waist circumference may be a better measure of success early on in the weight loss process.

- by Matt Nilsen

Exercise is so important to people living with diabetes. However, it is not a good idea to run out and start exercising without some coaching from your physician or diabetes educator. People with diabetes could use all their insulin processing the glucose that muscles need to sustain the pace of exercise. If that happens, they may find themselves on the uncomfortable or dangerous side of hypoglycemia.

CHICAGO - New research indicates that even small amounts of physical activity, approximately 75 minutes a week, can help improve the fitness levels for postmenopausal women who are sedentary and overweight or obese, according to a study in the May 16 issue of JAMA.

Higher dietary intake of fiber from grains, cereals, and magnesium, may each be associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a report and analysis in the May 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.