Diabetes Prevention Program Offers Knowledge For Living Healthy

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Diabetes is reaching epidemic levels in the United States. Right now 29 million people are living with diabetes, and another 86 million have what's called pre-diabetes.

Pre-diabetes is when a person's blood sugar levels are high but have not reached the threshold for diabetes. Most people with pre-diabetes are likely to develop diabetes within six years.

"I have three siblings who have diabetes. Me and my brother don't," Samuel Jenkins said.

Jenkins doesn't even have pre-diabetes, but he signed up for the Diabetes Prevention Program anyway.

"I just wanted it for the education factor," Jenkins told CBS4.

Jenkins says he didn't just get an education; he got the key to healthy living.

"Fat grams and calories... those are the two things," Jenkins said with a laugh.

The 16-week class focused around logging everything he ate and all his activity minutes. Jenkins adopted a Husky names Fire that he walks three times a day, every day. He credits Fire with getting him moving again, and he credits the food logs for making him accountable in his diet.

"We had to write down what we ate. So if you ate the chocolate cake, you had to put it down. So we had to be accountable," Jenkins explained.

Lisa Quintana teaches that accountability. She's one of the lifestyle coaches who teaches the Diabetes Prevention Program.

"It's all about food intake and your activity," Quintana told CBS4.

She says that participants in the class come away with a whole new way of looking at food.

"They can look at food and they know... it's just going to come automatic for them... how many fat grams is in that hamburger," Quintana said.

She says one of the big problems that most people face in their daily diet is that they're not aware of how many fat grams and calories they're actually eating. When Jenkins became aware, he made a few changes in how much he eats and upped his activity minutes by walking his dog. He was able to lost 25 pounds during the course of the program.

"I haven't been under 200 pounds since 1996," Jenkins said.

LINK: Diabetes Prevention Program

- Written for CBSDenver.com by Special Projects Producer Libby Smith