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The Effect Of Diet And Exercise On The Prevention Of Type ­ 2 Diabetes Essay

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How does diet and exercise relate to the prevention of Type­2 diabetes?
Diabetes in New Zealand has become a serious concern with 240,000 people currently affected and an estimated 100,000 people unaware that they even have it (cited Ministry of Health). These numbers are worrying for New Zealand’s society and they are only rising. The main contributor to the Type­2
Diabetes epidemic is obesity. This health problem can easily be controlled through proper exercise and healthy diet as long as it’s maintained and done frequently. Physical activity and an appropriate eating plan can help in reducing people’s chances of gaining type 2 diabetes as well as help in the loss of excess kilos.
Diabetes is a disease in which there is too much glucose in the blood. This can either be due to lack of insulin or insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone produced and released by the pancreas that allows cells to use sugar from the blood. In Type­2 Diabetes cells become unable to recognise insulin and no longer take the glucose from the blood. This is called insulin resistance and it is caused when a person ingests too much sugar for the body to cope with at a time. The person 's blood sugar increases, so the pancreas produces more and more insulin to accommodate the increased glucose, but the cells begin to not be able to recognise the insulin. The top diagram displays a healthy individual responding properly to insulin while the diagram below it represents a person with type­2 diabetes. This

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