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10 Myths About Sugar and Diabetes

Sugar isn't always the bad guy (11 Photos)

Jennifer Abbasi on Nov 29, 2011 at 11:57AM

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Myth: Eliminating Sugar Prevents Prediabetes from Turning into Diabetes

Truth: If you have prediabetes (blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes), you will not prevent it from developing into diabetes by cutting back on sugar, says Amy Campbell, a registered dietitian and manager of clinical education programs at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. “It’s not the sugar that’s going to bump you over the edge,” she says. It’s a mix of factors, including unhealthy food choices overall, too little exercise and genetics, that turn prediabetes into diabetes. It certainly helps to eat less sugar and fewer calories, but to prevent prediabetes from escalating to diabetes, you need to make more complete lifestyle changes.

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