StemCell Therapy

AMARILLO - Medication or healthy food?

It's a decision many in our area have to choose between when spending their money.

But for 12 weeks, more than a dozen people suffering from type two diabetes had the chance to solely focus on their health.

Norma Mata isn't the same woman she was after starting on a 12-week lifestyle change.

"My food intake has been better," said Mata. "More salads, more grilled meats, and things of that sort."

Despite living with type two diabetes, she decided to take control of her health.

"My sugars have gone down tremendously. Eating healthy is beneficial for our health," added Mata.

High Plains Food Bank officials say they recognized the need to provide foods that heal, so they initiated a partnership with Heal the City.

The group noted that many of their patients are living with type two diabetes and could benefit from nutrition-based interventions.

"Most of these patients had been diabetic for over ten years," said Rachel Scott, a Clinic Coordinator for Heal the City. "A lot of them said no, I don't really know what it means, I don't really know what I'm supposed to eat."

This led both non-profits to create a 12-week pilot program called "Food to Health".

We're told it includes nutrition education, healthy food, and medical care for food insecure patients who struggle with type two diabetes.

"The good thing about this program is not only do they help your health get better and have all these bad numbers go down., they taught you how to do that so you can take that knowledge home," said Lourdes Sanchez, another participant of "Food to Health". "You know that when you go shopping you have to look at the nutritional facts, you know what to look for, so you're able to continue forward with what happened during the program because they taught you how to do it yourself. "

Mata and Sanchez are part of the twenty participants who started on this 12-week "Food to Health" journey.

Next week Scott says 16 of them will graduate from the program.

Before the program started, "Food to Health" participants had tests and blood work done. Next week, they will get their lab results to compare their progress.

Mata and Sanchez tell us after changing their diet and mindset, they noticed a big difference.

Officials say individuals and families who lack consistent access to enough healthy food may have a higher risk of developing chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension and type two diabetes.

Read more from the original source:
Local Organizations Helping to Fight Type Two Diabetes - MyHighPlains

This entry was posted on June 30, 2017 at 12:47 am and is filed under Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |