1. Your siblings or parents have diabetes. 2. You are more than 20% overweight. 3. You do not exercise. 4. You have had gestational diabetes or you have had a baby over 9 lbs. 5. You have high blood pressure. 6. Your cholesterol level is not normal.

How to care for you Diabetes:

According to American Diabetes Association, people with Diabetes have same nutritional needs as everyone else. In addition to prescribed medications, well-balanced meals may help you keep your blood glucose level as normal as possible.

Also, just like everyone else, exercise is an important part of staying healthy. Exercising with diabetes does require a few extra safety steps that your health care professional can make you aware of.

Nutritious meals, an exercise routine, and using your NutriCounter along with help of your doctor may aid you in controlling your Diabetes. Diabetes will never truly go away, but with proper nutrition, exercise and prescribed medications, it can be controlled.

For more information on specific exercise and eating advice for diabetics, see following web sites:

American Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.org

Canadian Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.ca/Section_Main/welcome.asp

Online Risk Test http://www.diabetes.org/main/info/risk/risktest.jsp

Excellent article about Borderline Diabetes http://www.diabetes.ca/Section_About/borderline.asp

Am I at risk for Type 2 Diabetes? http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/diabetes/pubs/risk/risk.htm

Safety Tips for Exercising with Diabetes http://www.diabetes.org/main/health/exercise/safety/25ways.jsp

But what about cholesterol in my food? Interestingly enough, you probably don't absorb a lot of cholesterol you eat. Your body is very efficient at absorbing fat in your diet. It does this by using bile acids made by liver and stored in gallbladder. Remember, these bile acids are made of cholesterol. The fats you eat combine with bile acids in small intestine and are absorbed into body. Any excess bile acids that are still in small intestine after fats are absorbed are recycled and absorbed as well. Since bile acids are made of cholesterol (and are chemically very similar to cholesterol), cholesterol that you have eaten in your diet has to compete with bile acids in order for it to be absorbed as well. As it turns out, very little, if any, of cholesterol you eat actually makes it into your system. However, notice that of fats (saturated or unsaturated) are very efficiently absorbed into your system to be used as fuel or stored for a latter time.

So what's "skinny"? It is saturated fats in your diet that are most important to minimized, not dietary cholesterol. Often cholesterol and saturated fats are found together in foods, but not always. For instance, lobster is very high in cholesterol and protein, but not high in saturated fats. Eating lobster is really quite healthy and "heart smart", at least until you dip it in butter!

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For more information about Dr. Manger, his philosoph and a helpful monthly newsletter, visit http://www.smartcalorie.com/