As the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus continues to rise, the development of effective and sustainable prevention strategies has become a critical public health priority. Evidence from large-scale randomized controlled trials has established that lifestyle modification (LSM) programs can substantially reduce the risk of diabetes in high-risk individuals. However, routine implementation is limited by high intensity, costs, and resource requirements. We summarize major prevention trials and their effectiveness, feasibility, and limitations. Building on these insights, we introduce the Korean Diabetes Prevention Study (KDPS) as a contextually tailored model for the Korean healthcare system. The KDPS-LSM program was designed to integrate cultural and clinical relevance with practical applicability, consisting of a 6-month intensive phase of structured nutrition and lifestyle education followed by a maintenance phase to support long-term adherence. To promote sustainable change, the program incorporates the ‘10 habit’ lifestyle messages, grounded in the transtheoretical model of behavior change, which are designed for easy implementation in daily life. This review underscores the importance of developing culturally appropriate LSM programs that balance effectiveness with feasibility, and suggests that the KDPS-LSM model could serve as a useful foundation for establishing practical diabetes prevention strategies within national healthcare systems.
The implementation of effective dietary strategies is important for diabetes management. Dietary carbohydrate is the main factor determining blood sugar level, especially in the postprandial period. Carbohydrate-rich diets can have deleterious effects on glycemic control in diabetic patients and may play an important role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Low glycemic diets have been reported to have beneficial effects for diabetes control and cardiovascular risk factors. However, according to the American Diabetes Association recommendations for medical nutrition therapy, monitoring carbohydrate intake, whether by carbohydrate counting, exchange, or experience-based estimation, remains a key strategy for achieving glycemic control, with the use of the glycemic index and glycemic load recommended only as an auxiliary method that may provide a modest additional benefit for glycemic control over the effects observed when total carbohydrate is considered alone. Recently, an increasing amount of clinical evidence supports the efficacy of low glycemic diets for the management of diabetes. The development of practical methods to apply the glycemic index and glycemic load to the management of diabetes in clinical settings is warranted.
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