Prediabetes is a huge problem with ever larger numbers of the population being diagnosed with it. But for some people it can be a blessing, as it is the stage of type 2 diabetes where it can still be reversed. What does pre-diabetes mean for me? People with prediabetes have the early stages of insulin resistance –meaning that you’re producing plenty of insulin but your body isn’t responding to the insulin like it’s meant to. Insulin helps sugar from your blood get into your muscles and other cells to be used for energy. With insulin resistance, insulin finds it difficult to transfer the sugar into your cells. The result is that your blood sugars will be higher than they should be, notably after meals. In a lot of cases, prediabetes is linked with being overweight and losing weight can help to reduce the effects of prediabetes and put distance between you and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, a lot of the advice to reverse prediabetes is related to exercise and eating healthier. More activity and exercise You should see about increasing your activity levels Activity does more than burn calories, it’s well known to help increase sensitivity to insulin and therefore reduce the effects of prediabetes. Portion size Food is usually given out in portions that are bigger than we really need, especially when eating out. It’s a good idea to reduce the portions you eat, especially in the case of foods such as bread, rice, pasta and potatoes and go for lower Glycemic Index versions of these foods such as whole grain bread, brown or basmati rice, whole wheat pasta, sweet potatoes or celeriac, parsnip, carrots. The great things about these versions is that they carry more nutrients than the ‘white’ varieties. Vegetables Getting in enough vegetables throughout the day can help to reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes Look to eat a strong proportion of vegetables. If you don't consider yourself a vegetables person, bear in mind that people’s taste tends to adjust to what they eat. Don’t let first impressions put you off. Home cooked meals Make a conscious effort to replace any processed/pre-prepared meals with home cooked/prepared foods. Small changes each week can add up to a big difference in your health. This means you can control your portion sizes better than if you ate out and means that you can easily substitute in lower Glycemic Index foods and add more vegetables. Glucose meters A glucose meter can tell you when your levels of blood sugar are high and can help to indicate what foods or activities might be causing the levels to go higher. Particularly if food is pushing your blood sugar levels higher, you can then do something to improve this. Either you could eat less of that food, or you could replace it with a different type of food. People on the DiabetesCommunity.com forum have tons of experience which can help you out with this.