Healthy People 2020 provides a 10-year national objective to improve the health of
the population in the United States. Its purpose is to use scienced based agendas that will
encourage Americans to achieve a high-quality long life. Healthy People 2020 also identifies
how nutrition has a role in preventing chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood
pressure, heart disease, osteoporosis, oral disease, etc. One condition that effects both young
adults and older adults is Type 2 diabetes. This is preventable disease that can be control
with nutrition and exercise. “Type 2 diabetes, which results from a combination of resistance
to the action of insulin and insufficient insulin production” (Healthy People, 2019).
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2020), 34.2 million
people of all ages or 10.5% of the United States population is diagnosed with diabetes in
2018. One of the most important things to prevent diabetes is to give education to those who
have this disease the runs in the family and educated how this disease can affect one’s
livelihood for the rest of their lives. Teaching patients that diabetes can also cause other
comorbidities can instill a fear in them to prevent themselves from getting this disease. In
terms of diet and nutrition, as a nurse practitioner I would teach my patients to chose whole
grain products over refined grains and other processed carbohydrates. “There is convincing
evidence that diets rich
in whole grain protect against diabetes, whereas diets rich in refined carbohydrates lead to
increased risk” (Harvard School of Public Health, 2021). Skipping sugary drinks and
choosing water instead can decrease the risk of diabetes type 2. “In the Nurses’ Health Study
II, women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had an 83% higher
risk of type 2 diabetes, compared with women who drank less than one sugar-sweetened
beverage per month” (Harvard School of Public Health, 2021). Choose healthy fats.