Diabetes and Prediabetes.

Louisiana consistently ranks among the highest states for diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. This project explores why - focusing on daily habits, food environments, stress, and what we've been taught is "normal."

Louisiana struggles with chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. These patterns aren't the result of individual failure - they are shaped by our environment, access, stress, culture, and long-standing habits.

This project looks at how daily routines, food choices, sugar intake, ultra-processed foods, and lifestyle factors interact over time - and why so many of these patterns feel "normal" even when they quietly work against long-term health.

The goal of this project is education and awareness, not blame or extremes. By understanding how these systems work together, healthier choices can feel more informed, realistic, and sustainable.

This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice.

Diabetes and prediabetes are among the most common chronic health conditions affecting adults in Ruston, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, and across the southern Unites States. Many people are diagnosed later in life, while others live with elevated blood sugar levels without even realizing it.

1 in 10 of our residents in the Ruston area have reported having diabetes, while 1 in 3 people are estimated to have prediabetes. These patterns are not unique to individuals - they reflect broader trends in food availability, daily routines, stress levels, and long-standing cultural norms around eating and work.

Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes typically develop gradually. Blood sugar levels may run higher than normal long before a diagnosis occurs, especially when the body is repeatedly asked to break down high sugar intake, irregular meals, and chronic stress.

Common contributing patterns include:

Regular consumption of sugary drinks (soda, sweet tea, flavored coffee)
Meals built around highly processed or convenience foods
Long gaps built between meals followed by larger portions
High stress combined with limited recovery or sleep
Limited time or energy for consistant meal planning

From the First Bite to Long Term Effects

How sugar affects the human body - understanding why these patterns matter. It helps to look at what happens inside of the bosy when the sugar is consumed repeatedly over time.

You eat or drink something containing sugars and carbohydrates - including refined carbs (bread, pasta, cereal, fruit, soda) and complex carbohydrates (beans, potatoes, green veggies)
It hits your stomach then intestines (gastrointestinal tract ) and starts breaking down the food into glucose
The glucose is then absorbed throught the intestines then into the blood stream
Your blood sugar starts to rise - the rise being normal, but with refined carbs it depends on how much sugar is consumed, how quickly it's absorbed, and whether its paired with protein, fat, or fiber
Liquids and processed foods (refined carbs) raise your sugars a lot faster than whole foods (complex carbs)
To manage the spike in blood sugar, the pancreas releases insulin
Insulin's job is to move glucose out of the bloodstream, deliver it into the cells for energy, and stores excess glucose for later use (think of insulin as a key that unlocks cells so glucose can enter)
If you eat a lot of glucose (refined carbs) your pancreas releases a larger amount of insulin to keep up (our bodies aren't used to refined sugars compared to complex carbs like veggies and beans)
Once insulin does its job, glucose has three main paths; used immediately for energy (this goes to muscles, brain, and organs), stored as glycogen in liver and muscles (limited storage space), and when the storage is full its converted to fat (long term storage).
The process is normal but it problems arise with frequency - the constant up and down of glucose and insulin
After the glucose is used or stored, your blood sugar levels fall and insulin levels decrease
If it falls too quickly, some people will feel the crash, feeling tired, shaky, hungry, irritable, and foggy. This often leads to cravings for more sugar - restarting the cycle
When the sugar and insulin is raised often throughout the day with processed foods and drinks, cells become less responsive to insulin over time, it eventually needs more insulin to do the same job - which is called insulin resistance

With insulin resistance glucose stays in the bloodstream longer, blood sugar remains elevated, the pancreas works harder, fatigue and energy crashes become more common - this is prediabetes

When the elevated blood sugar continues over time it can contribute to chronic inflammation, damage to blood vessels, strain on pacreas. Over the long term, this raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, nerve damage, kidney stress, and cognitive decline

It's not sugar itself. Your body needs sugar. Just not all the time.

The issue is how often the blood sugar spikes, how high it spikes, and how little recovery time the body gets between those spikes.

The repeated elevation without recovery is what drives the long-term problems - not a single food or meal.