Most people with diabetes are given a prescription and a warning to "avoid sweets". That is not enough to control the disease, and it is not what decides whether you develop complications twenty years from now.
What changes your readings most
- Walking for 30 minutes after your largest meal — this blunts the sugar spike more reliably than walking at any other time of day.
- Eating protein or vegetables before the rice or roti in the same meal, rather than changing what you eat entirely.
- Taking medicines at the same time each day. Irregular timing causes swings that look like the medicine has stopped working.
- Sleeping seven hours. Short sleep raises fasting sugar even when diet has not changed.
The three yearly tests
Complications develop silently, and by the time they cause symptoms they are harder to reverse. Once a year, regardless of how well controlled you feel: an eye examination, urine microalbumin for the kidneys, and a foot examination for sensation. HbA1c should be checked every three months.
Never stop or halve a diabetes medicine because your sugar reading improved. The reading improved because the medicine is working.
This article is general guidance, not a diagnosis or a prescription. Your own treatment depends on your history and examination — please discuss it with your doctor.