174 Eating for Good Health
high blood pressure, 130
cancer, 376
arthritis, 133
Problems from eating too much food or
the wrong kinds of food
Women who do not have healthy foods to eat, especially if
they are very overweight and their diets have too much fat or
sugar, are more likely to have high blood pressure, heart disease, a
stroke, gallstones, diabetes, and some cancers.
Being very overweight can also cause
arthritis in the legs and feet.
Make sure you get enough exercise,
and eat more fruits and vegetables. Here
are some suggestions for cutting down the
amount of unhealthy foods in the diet:
• Cook with broth or water instead of
using butter, ghee, lard, or oil.
• Remove fat from meat before cooking.
Do not eat the skin of chicken or turkey.
• Avoid processed snack foods that are
high in fat, sugar and salt, such as
chips, crackers, and sweet drinks like
Coca-Cola.
➤ Diabetes is more
likely to develop
during pregnancy
than at other times.
If you are pregnant
and are always thirsty
or are losing weight,
see a health worker
to test your blood for
sugar.
Diabetes
People with diabetes have too much sugar in their blood.
This disease is usually more serious if it starts when a person is
young (juvenile diabetes). But it is most common in people over
age 40 who are very overweight.
Early signs:
• always thirsty
• urinates often and a lot
• always tired
• always hungry
• weight loss
• frequent vaginal infections
Later, more serious signs:
• itchy skin
• periods of blurry eyesight
• some loss of feeling in the hands or feet
• sores on the feet that do not heal
• loss of consciousness (in extreme cases)
All these signs may be caused by other diseases. To find
out whether you have diabetes, see a health worker, or do
not eat for 8 hours and then go to a laboratory to get a test
for fasting blood glucose (sugar). If your sugar level is over
125 on two separate tests, you have diabetes.
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012