What is “prediabetes” and what role does diet play in it?
Prediabetes describes “borderline-high” blood glucose levels that consistently fall between what is considered a healthy, normal level and a high level that meets the diagnostic criteria for diabetes. Let’s look at some numbers that might help you understand this a little better. One common blood-glucose test is the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test, a measure of glucose in the blood after a period of fasting (after a meal, blood sugar increases significantly). Normal glucose levels with this test would be less than 100 mg/dl and diabetic levels would be greater than 126 mg/dl. Anything between 100 mg/dl and 126 mg/dl falls into a risky range of prediabetes—so called because people with this level of “impaired glucose responses” are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes within 10 years. They also are at an increased risk for heart disease. And the condition is not all that uncommon: 54 million Americans have blood-sugar levels corresponding to a prediabetes diagnosis. The good ne
