Book review

The Prediabetes Diet Plan
By Hillary Wright
Ten Speed Press, 245 pages, $17.99
ISBN: 978-1-60774-462-7

With more than 9 million Canadians living with diabetes or prediabetes, the chronic disease is a serious burden on families and the country itself. Sadly, it’s also a leading killer.

While type 1 diabetes usually develops in childhood or adolescence and cannot be prevented, type 2 diabetes is different.

Also called adult-onset diabetes, type 2 diabetes can often be delayed or prevented by eating healthily, getting regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy body weight. Prediabetes means that a person’s blood-glucose levels are high, but not high enough to be considered diabetes. This too can be prevented by making healthy lifestyle changes.

Knowing that some forms of diabetes are preventable is one thing. Making healthy lifestyle changes to fend the disease off is another. Replacing old habits with new ones can be challenging, and seeing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle can take time.

Registered dietitian Hillary Wright’s new book can help people make and maintain positive changes to keep the disease at bay. The Pre-Diabetes Diet Plan: How to Reverse Prediabetes and Prevent Diabetes through Healthy Eating and Exercise is packed with positive, practical advice.

Using simple language, Wright makes complex subjects such as insulin resistance and counting carbohydrates easy to understand. The science behind the chronic condition is well explained, but that’s not the most valuable part of this book.

With sections that discuss many aspects of our day-to-day lives—including meal planning, grocery shopping, exercise, and even dining out—it’s Wright’s no-nonsense, comprehensive, and doable approach to being free of diabetes that will keep you turning pages.

Consider her detailed breakdown on piecing together enough exercise per week, ideally reaching a minimum of 150 minutes. There are snack suggestions and ways to load up on healthy ones (store veggies at eye level in the fridge) and what a balanced, well-proportioned dinner plate should look like (use a salad plate instead of a larger one for portion control).

Then there’s her “cowboy” strategy. If you have a lapse—for example, you skipped the gym or overindulged at lunch—pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the saddle.

The Prediabetes Diet Plan offers insightful (though very US-centric) statistics and reliable references. Overall, though, the book’s actionable and practical advice is something everyone can benefit from.