Kevin James talks about the confusion and prevalence of a PreDiabetes diagnosis in this comedy routine.
Approximately 98 million American adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes. Of those with prediabetes, more than 80% don’t know they have it.
While his routine is funny, it’s also misleading. His approach to brushing it off is problematic because prediabetes is a chance to reset and take action. Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes.
Letting it slide, a Prediabetes diagnosis will eventually lead to type 2 diabetes. With equal amounts of regret and self-judgment on top of this new diagnosis, no one is setting themselves up for a ‘win.’
Join a National Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle change program for more guidance and support. This program teaches you how to make gradual lifestyle changes that increase your chances of reversing prediabetes. You’ll have access to professional advice and a community of others on a similar journey to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. You can joke all you want as you work to achieve optimum health!
Gospel Singer Pat Lacy, who has worked with The Sounds of Blackness and Luther Vandross, shares her experience living with type 2 diabetes and how she modified her lifestyle to take charge of her health.
One positive side effect of Kevin’s comedy routine is that Kelly Clarkson revealed her Prediabetes diagnosis sparked her weight loss journey. The TV show host turned her health around by walking, eating a healthy mix of foods, and not depriving herself of an occasional treat.
Not everyone can indulge in a treat. My friend, health guru Kathie Dolgin, known as ‘High Voltage,’ can’t stop eating sugar once she has it. High Voltage chooses not to eat added sugar. She doesn’t believe in deprivation, so she’s found ways to satisfy her sweet tooth with natural sugars and alternatives. High Voltage joins me on this podcast!
Dr. Stephen Bracci & special guest Kath Dolgin discuss the standard American diet.
We are excited to announce our partnership with Diabetes Sisters to conduct the first-ever Survey on LOVE for women with diabetes across all stages of life.
Relationships, including the ones we have with ourselves, play a crucial role in managing diabetes. From marriages to best friends, we hope to gain insight into the topics that matter the most to you and what kind of support and guidance you need, particularly if you’re dealing with sexual health issues.
It’s time for the voices of the approximately 15 million women in the United States who have diabetes, or about 1 in every 9 adult women, to be heard.
Managing diabetes can be challenging. Depending on what’s happening in your life, such as hormonal changes, how you manage your diabetes may need to change over time. Staying on track with your body, relationships, and attitude towards living with diabetes can be a daunting task.
We plan to release the survey on Galalantines Day, February 13, and publish our results on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2024. Your participation can help us improve the quality of our care, support, and encouragement.
Enjoy this excerpt from Divabetic’s 10th Annual Original Mystery podcast, “Murder Plain As Vanilla,” streaming on Spotify, iTunes, and BlogTalkRadio.
Our mystery podcast is not just for mystery lovers. It’s an engaging way to learn about diabetes and self-care. Amidst colorful characters, thrilling adventures, and delightful settings, we offer health and wellness tips to help you take charge of your diabetes self-care. We also promote the idea of thinking like a detective when you experience unexpected blood sugar fluctuations. Look for clues, gather data, talk to witnesses (friends, co-workers, and family members ), and present your ideas to healthcare professionals for solutions. A team approach to managing your diabetes is also a great idea.
Here is a summary of Divabetic’s 10th Annual Original Mystery podcast, “Murder Plan As Vanilla.” Mr. Divabetic, a baking enthusiast, is invited by his archnemesis and baker, Renata Whisk, to participate in the world-renowned Visions of Vanilla baking competition. The competition will feature fabulous culinary giants such as Best-Selling Cookbook Author Lily Frost, Green Thumb Gourmet, Hazel Honeywell, and the Cannoli Countess.
Max, who owes his mother a debt, accepts the invitation. However, before Max can start baking, he discovers the dead body of the Vanilla King of Madagascar, Conrad Rivera. As luck would have it, Max was the last person to see the Vanilla King alive. To prove his innocence, he seeks help from his team, USA Today’s best-selling author Tonya Kappes, health educator MaryAnn Nicolay MEd, NDTR, former FBI Agent Pauline, and his mother, Mama Rose Marie.
Things take a turn for the worse when another baker is found dead near Max’s station, raising suspicions about his involvement in the murders. Even Max’s mother is at risk. Now, with only Renata Whisk’s Puffed Pastry recipe, a rolling pin, and his team’s expertise in solving murders and providing diabetes health information, Max must solve the mystery or die trying.
Divabetic Mysteries: “Murder Plain As Vanilla” podcast features Lorraine Brooks, Catherine Schuller, Dave Jones, Seveda Williams, and Amparo Peterkin, with script editing by Wendy Radford and produced by Leisa Chester Weir.
Jill Weisenberger is recognized internationally for her expertise in nutrition, diabetes, and prediabetes. She worked as a nutrition counselor, diabetes educator, and health coach in hospitals, research, and private practice settings. Jill helps leverage resources, recipes, and scientific insights to find better ways to improve eating and smart living, reduce the risk of mismanaged diabetes health-related complications, and support better health.
Jill Weisenberger is the author of Prediabetes: A Complete Guide, 2nd edition, The Beginners’s Guide to What to Eat with Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes Weight Loss Week By Week, 21 Things You Need to Know About Diabetes and Your Heart, and The Overworked Person’s Guide To Better Nutrition. Additionally, she offers the Prediabetes Meal Planning Crash Course, Prediabetes Turnaround, Type 2 Eating Guide, and a Stick With It Video Course.
Gospel Singer Pat Lacy, who has worked with The Sounds of Blackness and Luther Vandross, shares her experience living with type 2 diabetes and how she modified her lifestyle to take charge of her health. This podcast features music from Pat Lacy’s upcoming gospel album, I’m Taking You To Church.
Help Us Light the Way During National Diabetes Awareness Month (November)
Approximately 96 million American adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes. Did you know that over 80% don’t know they have it? Prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
This November, join Divabetic’s Blue Candle initiative and encourage your friends, co-workers, and family members to be screened for pre-diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers a quick, easy online Pre-Diabetes risk test.
Be by their side when they check, and share your experience of living well with diabetes so they can see that living well with diabetes is possible. Together, we can help others come out of the dark, address their diabetes health status, and start living their lives to the fullest.
Starbucks Apple Crisp Oatmilk Frappuccino combines apple, cinnamon, and brown sugar in your brew to taste apple pie filling.
You might assume you’re ordering something healthy because it contains oat milk, but think again: Apple Crisp Oatmilk Frappuccinos pack a big sugar punch!!
According to the Starbucks website, a Grande size Apple Crisp Oatmilk Frappuccino contains 60 grams (or 15 teaspoons) of sugar. Additional nutrition information: Total Carbohydrates: 70 grams, Calories:420
Oat milk is a non-dairy milk alternative like soy and almond milk. An 8-ounce glass of oat milk contains 4 grams of protein compared to dairy milk, which has twice as much: 8 grams of protein in every 8-ounce glass.
But this grain-based milk is gluten-free, and many brands are free from the major allergens.
Oat milk and dairy milk also differ in carbohydrate content. Original varieties of oat milk can have up to 24 grams of carbohydrates per serving, while dairy milk has 12 grams.
Expert Tip: The American Diabetes Association recommends you look at the Total Carbohydrate instead of the Net Carbson the Nutrition Facts label. The total carbohydrate on the label includes all three types of carbohydrates: sugar, starch, and fiber.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends eating no more than 12.5 teaspoons of sugar daily, or about 50 grams (the same amount found in Starbucks’ super popular Grande Pumpkin Spice Latte and a 16 oz. bottle of Coke!). You are having a day’s worth of sugar in one drink!
Limiting added sugar consumption to 10 percent of a person’s daily total calories is the idea. Americans get about 16 percent of their calories from added sugars on average.
How Much Added Sugar Are You Drinking?
America’s #1 Energy Conductor, Kathie Dolgin aka High Voltage, shows how much added sugar is in popular drinks in this video – it’s shocking!! 4.2 grams equals a teaspoon, but the nutrition facts round this number down to four grams. Using this equation, you can easily look at any drink to see how much sugar it contains.
We’re talking about ‘THE SWEETEST TABOO’ aka ‘SUGAR’ with musical inspiration from Sade on this episode of Divabetic’s podcast.
Guests include Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES, Tameka Milline, Catherine Schuller, Kathy Dolgin aka ‘High Voltage’, and Stephanie MacKendree. Throughout the podcast, we play music from The Essential Sadealbum courtesy of SONY Music.
Over time, consistently taking in more sugar will lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when cells in your muscles, fat, and liver don’t respond well to insulin and can’t easily take up glucose from your blood, leading to prediabetes.
Prediabetes means your blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
Help Us Light the Way During National Diabetes Awareness Month (November)
Approximately 96 million American adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes. Did you know that over 80% don’t know they have it? Prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
This November, join Divabetic’s Blue Candle initiative and encourage your friends, co-workers, and family members to be screened for pre-diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers a quick, easy online Pre-Diabetes risk test.
Be by their side when they check, and share your experience of living well with diabetes so they can see that living well with diabetes is possible. Together, we can help others come out of the dark, address their diabetes health status, and start living their lives to the fullest.
According to the State Journal-Register of Illinois, McDonald’s plans to phase out the do-it-yourself stations, eliminating them over the next decade as franchise owners cite hygiene, theft, and consumer eating habits.
Slashing soft drinks from your diet is a quick way to improve your health and lose weight. Sugar-sweetened soft drinks are the leading sources of added sugars in the American diet. Frequently drinking sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, non-alcoholic liver disease, tooth decay and cavities, and gout, a type of arthritis. But giving up your soda habit isn’t always an easy task. While some people can function just fine without soft drinks, others need their fix starting at breakfast.
Soda Is Engineered To Make You Drink More
According to Gary Wenk, director of neuroscience undergraduate programs at Ohio State University and author of “Your Brain on Food,” it’s all in the beverage’s design.” He believes your favorite soft drink brand is engineered with enough sweetener, caffeine, and carbonation to make you continuously want to grab and gulp.
“Free refills are a big draw for people,” Kim Derringer, who operates three McDonald’s franchises in Springfield, Ill., told The State-Journal Register.
“I don’t see anything taking that away.”
Most People Don’t Know How Many Calories Are In Soda
Even though it’s widely known that soda can contribute to weight gain, most adults don’t know how many calories are in a bottle of soda, a new study reveals.
The research, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and based on data from 3,926 adults, shows that eight in 10 adults — 84.4 percent — know that sugar-sweetened beverages can promote weight gain. However, nearly the same percentage of adults — 81 percent — did not know (or inaccurately stated) the number of calories in 24 ounces of soda. (There are 251 to 350 calories in a 24-ounce soda).
If you’re having a soft drink on occasion – say a few times per month – there’s no need for concern. But if you’re having more than one soda per day, you could be putting yourself at risk for health conditions, stroke, and dementia.
“The key is finding (another) beverage you enjoy,” Msora-Kasago said. “Unsweetened milk is always a great place to start because in addition to quenching thirst, milk provides many important nutrients such as protein and calcium.”
We’re talking about ‘THE SWEETEST TABOO’ aka ‘SUGAR’ with musical inspiration from Sade on this episode of Divabetic’s podcast.
Added sugar is everywhere. But do we understand the impact it has on our diabetes health?
You may think of sweets, chocolate, sodas, table sugar, and perhaps fruit if asked to name sugary foods. But sugar also appears in savory foods such as ready meals, soups, salads, sauces, and ‘healthy’ foods such as breakfast cereals and yogurt. Furthermore, starches such as bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes also convert to sugar in our bloodstream, having the same impact on our bodies. These ‘hidden sugars’ can add a surprising amount to our daily intake.
Guests include Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES, Tameka Milline, Catherine Schuller, Kathy Dolgin aka ‘High Voltage’, and Stephanie MacKendree. Throughout the podcast, we play music from The Essential Sade album courtesy of SONY Music.
Help Us Light the Way During National Diabetes Awareness Month (November)
Approximately 96 million American adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes. Did you know that over 80% don’t know they have it? Prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
This November, join Divabetic’s Blue Candle initiative and encourage your friends, co-workers, and family members to be screened for pre-diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers a quick, easy online Pre-Diabetes risk test.
Be by their side when they check, and share your experience of living well with diabetes so they can see that living well with diabetes is possible. Together, we can help others come out of the dark, address their diabetes health status, and start living their lives to the fullest.
Enjoy this poem, Buttons, by Lorraine Brooks, whose monthly poetry contributions on Divabetic’s podcast help inform and enlighten our listeners. Over the years, Lorraine has helped me champion a weight-neutral approach to managing diabetes. She has shown me and countless others how focusing solely on the number you see on the scale can harm your diabetes health.
Taking a weight-neutral approach involves working outside the confines of weight loss as the primary goal for managing your diabetes. The goal is to respect the body and learn how to cultivate healthy habits. Unlike traditional approaches to weight loss, weight is not used as an indicator of health. The focus is on size acceptance, consistent self-care behaviors, and diabetes care. You can be healthy at every size.
BUTTONS by Lorraine Brooks
I’ve never had buttons
On top of my jeans
I’ve only been able
To wear size of “queens”.
Elastic has often been
Something I needed
In clothing that made me feel
Somewhat defeated.
I longed for the feeling
Of putting on pants
Not worrying if people
Looked at me
Askance.
No more stretch fabric
And no more a “plus”,
And seeing my booty
As big as a bus.
I’m tucking my shirt in,
I’m wearing no sleeves,
My body is freedom
My body believes.
The old grey sweatshirt
That I used to dread
I’m wearing a cardigan sweater
Instead.
I know that this “victory”
Might not seem much
And that I am not “perfect” or
Gorgeous and such.
But trust me and listen
When I have to say
I buttoned my jeans today…
Hip, hip hooray!
The happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic plays the food game, Serve, Taste or Trash! at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.
