There are more than 100 million American adults now living with diabetes or with pre-diabetes according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the new report issued last week by the CDC, as of 2015 more than 9 percent of the population – 30.3 million had diabetes and another 84.1 million had pre-diabetes according to the report. Wow, those are staggering statistics!

The report found that awareness of having diabetes is still relatively low -- almost 1 in 4 adults (25 percent) with diabetes didn’t even know they had the disease, and less than 12 percent with pre-diabetes knew they had it.

It’s important to know if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes in order to properly manage the disease or prevent full-blown diabetes from developing.

Pre-diabetes is when someone has high blood sugar levels, but not so high that they have full-blown diabetes which requires medication or insulin injections. With exercise and a healthy diet, those with pre-diabetes can reduce their risk in half of developing type 2 diabetes. If pre-diabetes is not treated, it often leads to type 2 diabetes within five years according to the CDC.

More than a third of U.S. adults have pre-diabetes and a majority of them don’t know they have it. Although CDC findings of new diabetes cases have remained steady with 1.5 million new cases being diagnosed among people 18 years and older in 2015, it is important to step up efforts to reduce the burden of having diabetes.

Prevention is key in avoiding the development of diabetes, including but not limited to eye, kidney, nerve problems, dental disease, dementia and depression. It truly is a whole body disease and more focus on prevention can have a profound impact on people’s overall health.

A healthy, well-balanced diet such as Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating can be a perfect choice for those seeking improvement in their diets.