Tom Hanks has been box-office gold playing ordinary men caught in trying circumstances. He was a young boy trapped in the body of a man in Big, a man trapped on a desert island in Cast Away, an airport in The Terminal and with Madonna in A League of Their Own.
But Hanks’ most recent role is that of a man fighting diabetes in real life.
While visiting The Late Show early in October to promote his new movie, Captain Phillips, the 57-year-old actor told host David Letterman he’s had to monitor his high blood-sugar numbers for the past 20 years. His doctor told him recently he had type 2 diabetes.
“My doctor said, ‘Look, if you can weigh as much as you weighed in high school, you will essentially be completely healthy and not have type 2 diabetes,’ ” Hanks told Letterman. “And I said to her, ‘Well, I’m gonna have type 2 diabetes.’ ”
That’s not exactly the message the local medical community wants to spread. Trying to reduce the risk, or effect, of diabetes through the changing of one’s diet and engaging in an exercise routine can be worth the effort.
“A lot of the focus is on nutrition now — 90 to 95 percent is what people eat and their lifestyle,” said Dr. Leila Chaychi, assistant professor of endocrinology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. “If they really take care of that, we see a lot of improvement and can take patients off of medications if they watch their diet and lose weight. A lot of patients look at what they are eating and immediately see a result, so it is related.”
Taking control
Rita Stein, 81, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes — the kind Hanks has — 10 years ago and has been able to maintain her blood-sugar levels through careful diet-planning sans medicine. She follows the Plate Method, promoted by Sonia Angel, the coordinator of the Diabetes and Nutrition Center at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.
“Basically, the Plate Method is an easier way of planning meals by dividing a medium-size plate into four parts, where a quarter of the plate is going to be your protein, which should be lean meats including fish, turkey or chicken. The other quarter is going to be your carbohydrate which should be a complex carbohydrate — whole grain pasta, brown rice, things like quinoa, which is high in fiber, whole grains in general. And the rest of the plate, half, should be a salad or vegetables or both,” Angel explained.
For people like Stein, who says she wasn’t particularly active physically, the attention to detail pays off.
“I’ve been trying as hard as I can to follow her Plate Method, with one quarter protein, one quarter carbohydrate and the rest vegetables. It’s not easy, but with an effort, I’m getting closer and closer to it and keeping my blood sugar well under control. The diet has helped and convinced me that’s the way to go,” Stein said.
A recent meal included salmon, mashed potatoes, asparagus and a green salad, along with raspberries for dessert. Stein’s blood-sugar reading was 130 two hours after eating. “I always aim for under 200. It’s better if it’s under 150, and 130 is just where I need to be,” Stein said.
Eventually, however, patients who are able to control their blood sugar by carefully monitoring their diets might still have to take medication at some point.
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