Exercising every other day (at least) is needed to maintain optimal insulin sensitivity.
For people who already have diabetes, putting an emphasis on carbohydrate foods that are relatively low both in glycemic index and caloric density is smart. By preventing post-meal glucose levels from going through the roof, you can improve your blood sugar control, diminish your risk for diabetic complications, and moderate the stress on your beta cells.

Western obesity reflects the joint overeating of refined carbohydrates and fatty foods, to go with a relatively sedentary lifestyle.

Most people, including a high proportion of physicians, look on diabetes as a lifelong sentence, something that you control rather than reverse. Yet permanent reversal of type 2 diabetes may be possible. Some of the best evidence that diabetes can be reversed comes from exceptionally obese diabetics who undergo gastrointestinal surgery to achieve massive weight loss. The typical response to successful surgery of this sort is a gradual weight loss of a hundred pounds or more. And, in the process, the diabetes usually just goes away!

Massive loss of body fat, and thus alleviation of "fat poisoning", is crucial. The fact that these surgeries require patients to avoid large meals implies that post-meal rises in blood glucose may be moderated which would alleviate glucotoxicity. It is clear that diabetes can be reversed with a fair degree of regularity in these patients. Surgeries of this type are risky and expensive.

What most diabetics need are sustainable lifestyle strategies that can achieve and maintain appropriate weight loss while alleviating glucolipotoxicity and allowing recovery of normal beta cell function. Is this feasible? For many diabetics, it is.

Ever since Nathan Pritikin started teaching patients a lifestyle centered on a very-low-fat (10% fat calories), whole-food, predominantly vegetarian diet, complemented by substantial daily walking exercise, it has been clear that a prudent lifestyle can reverse diabetes in some diabetics, and substantially improve glucose control in most others.

Have You Seen This Week's TIME Magazine?
The Subject of this Special Issue is "Overcoming America's Obesity Crisis". The article demonstrates that the rate of obesity parallels the rate of diabetes in the U.S. Obesity and diabetes form a vicious cycle as the amount of fat in the body causes a chain reaction that includes the increased production of insulin which, in turn, increases fat storage in the body.

We agree with much of what TIME Magazine has to say. The Bottom Line is 2/3 of U.S. adults are overweight and about half of those qualify as clinically obese. Americans spend $117 billion a year on obesity linked illnesses. Diet and poor exercise trail only tobacco as a cause of preventable death. So, we're a month ahead of TIME magazine and you can be way ahead with your health by acting today to exercise, reduce fat in your diet and take proper supplements.