First off, before I begin, I want to wish you all a “Happy Diabetes Season!!!”

“Wait…what?!”

For those of you who are scratching your heads, thinking, “Well, THAT doesn’t sound like a good thing!”…you’re right; diabetes is definitely NOT a good thing. For some, neither are the three months out of the year that set many people up for a lifetime struggle with the disease that often results in blindness, stroke, kidney failure, obesity, amputation, and death.

“Diabetes Season” officially started on the scariest of dates – Halloween, with its evil amount of refined sugars – and continues through the first, second, third and leftover helpings of an immoderate Thanksgiving dinner. In December comes an endless “Blitz-en” of Christmas parties, wrought with cookies, spirits, and fancy feasts, and the season finally comes to a dizzying head after a bubbly New Year’s Eve celebration.

Through the excess, indulgence, long days, and late nights that come with the holiday season, people set themselves up for weight gain and pre-diabetes through over consumption of treats, sweets, alcohol, and high-calorie smorgasbords. Thus, “holiday season” is oftentimes synonymous with “diabetes season” in terms of the creating bad habits that set the table for poor health.

Luckily, there are several things you can do to not only prevent type II diabetes, one of America’s fastest growing epidemics, but to actually defeat diabetes naturally. Below, here are my top five steps YOU can take to defeat diabetes, as evidenced by the miraculous health transformation of my client, hip hop personality Fatman Scoop (MTV’s “Man and Wife”), who reduced his blood sugar levels from a whopping 325 to a modest 105 in just three weeks!:

1) GET OFF THE COUCH!
Daily exercise is vitally important to conquering diabetes. A 20-minute power- walk, a 40-minute medium-pace saunter, or a 1-hour leisurely stroll will help lower blood sugar, reduce insulin resistance, increase circulation, burn fat, and strengthen the heart & lungs.

2) BE A QUITTER!
Studies show that smoking and drinking alcohol are two bad habits that make diabetes much worse, increasing the likelihood you will die of the disease. Dropping these bad habits will greatly reduce stress on the lungs, liver, and pancreas.

3) AVOIDE THE "WHITE" EVILS!
Just because something is colored white doesn’t necessarily mean there is anything angelic about it, especially in the case of processed foods like breads, sugars, milk, rice, and salt. These do not contain the fiber, minerals, and nutrients that “slow down” the rate they are converted to simple starches and sugar, causing “spikes” in insulin and blood sugar.

4) BE LIKE THE TORTOISE, NOT THE HARE!
A famous fable once taught us that being “slow and steady wins the race,” and this couldn’t be truer than in the case of slow burning, nutritious, whole grain products like germinated barley, brown rice bran and other beta glucan (soluble fiber) rich grains and seeds. By increasing your intake of such foods, they contribute to blood glucose stability by slowly releasing energy gradually and provide B vitamins, enzymes, fibers, and minerals in the process.

5) GO GREEN!
Going “green” doesn’t just mean recycling in this case; it means increasing the amount of deeply green-colored vegetables in your diet. Try wheatgrass and barley grass juice (and powders), which are “super” deep green leaves of young cereal grains rich in chlorophyll and minerals. Such superfoods oxygenate, alkalize, and detoxify the blood, thereby increasing the efficiency of insulin.

Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season this year; may it be a healthy trip down memory lane and not a runaway sleigh ride of unrestrained consumption!

Author's Bio: 

David Sandoval is a world-renowned whole food nutritionist, disease prevention, and anti-aging expert. The President & Founder of Purium Health Products, Sandoval uses his vast expertise in natural healing to formulate world-class organic superfood blends, available at www.phporder.com. An expert on childhood obesity and diabetes, Sandoval created the revolutionary diabetes-fighting product Scoop of Greens (www.scoopofgreens.com) after miraculous success working with MTV star and type II diabetic Fatman Scoop.

Sandoval wrote THE GREEN FOODS BIBLE in 2007, and his second book, 21 DAYS TO DEFEAT DIABETES, will be published in early 2009. He also created a healthy alternative to harmful fasting diets using superfoods in a program called Superfoods for Supermodels (www.superfoodsforsupermodels.com).

Based in Long Beach, CA, Sandoval also advises and consults with an impressive roster of celebrities, including several actors, musicians, professional athletes, and models. Sandoval has been featured on KTLA-Los Angeles, Sirius Satellite Radio, USA Weekend, Maximum Fitness Magazine, Viva Magazine, and Personal Fitness Professional Magazine among others.