A recent study illustrates that a large number of Americans may be inadvertently adding to their health insurance cost by neglecting their diets and courting diabetes risks.
According to researchers at Wake Forest University, the study of 2,757 patients with type 2 diabetes found that 93 percent consume more than the recommended amount of fat in a given day, while 85 percent consumer more saturated fat and 92 percent consume more sodium than recommended.
The study found that participants get about 44 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrates, 40 percent from fat and 17 percent from protein, even though carbohydrates play a role in higher blood sugar levels for diabetics.
These dietary trends are common even among people who do not have type 2 diabetes - to such an extent that researchers have even stopped referring to it as "adult onset diabetes" because of the large number of children and teenagers coming down with the condition.
By eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoiding excessive amounts of fried foods and fatty meats, consumers can avoid conditions like heart disease and diabetes. One's health insurance cost can be substantially increased by such conditions because they are considered pre-existing conditions.