Five lifestyle and daily habits that may lead to diabetes

Diabetes, if left untreated, can cause serious health complications. Unfortunately, most people with diabetes, especially those with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, do not know that they have the disease as they may not experience any symptoms initially.
Diabetes is a life-long disease that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high.
There are two main types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes - a condition where the body's immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin, meaning no insulin is produced.
Type 2 diabetes - a condition where the body doesn’t make enough insulin, or the body's cells don't react to insulin.
They are different conditions, caused by different things, but both need to be treated and managed properly.
Another common type of diabetes is gestational diabetes – this condition develops in some women when they are pregnant.
Doctors do not know exactly what causes diabetes. However, both your genes and your childhood environment can be responsible factors. Here are five bad habits that can raise your risk of diabetes:
Skipping breakfast
Just like in the case of other chronic conditions, skipping breakfast can set off a chain reaction that hampers insulin levels, making it harder to control blood sugar. Refraining from breakfast, which is the main meal of the day, does not only cause your system to backfire after you have starved yourself all morning, but also increases your risk of type 2 diabetes.
As per a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, in addition to higher risk with skipping breakfast, persons who ate only one or two meals a day had a 25% increased risk of type 2 diabetes than those who followed the three-square-meals-a-day rule.
Binge-watching TV
We all know that being overweight increases an individual’s risk of developing diabetes. A study carried out by the University of Pittsburgh showed that every hour spent sitting in front of the TV raises your risk of developing diabetes by nearly 4% percent, according to MensHealth.com. This is mainly because too much sitting can cause belly fat, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Drinking sugary drinks
Sugary drinks are the beverage of choice for millions of people worldwide, but the bad news is that consumption of soft drinks and diabetes go hand in hand. Consuming sweetened, sugary drinks can cause sharp rise in blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. Soft drinkers also have a higher risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions.
Late to bed
If you are a night owl, you might be putting yourself at risk of diabetes, even if you get 7-8 hours of sleep. Late sleepers are generally exposed to artificial lights - from cell phones, television - which are linked to lower insulin sensitivity and poorer blood sugar regulation by researchers.
Microwaving food in plastic
I’m sure many of us microwave our foods using plastic lunch boxes, which could be super-toxic and dangerous for your health. Researchers have found that chemicals from plastic wrap and plastic takeout containers can leech into food when heated and cause insulin resistance and high blood pressure, two harbingers of diabetes.