| " No time for breakfast and too much TV time are among the factors that can raise the risk of diabetes, Fitness magazine reports. In an article in its April issue, the magazine outlines nine surprising risk factors for the disease, which affects about 21 million people in the United States. " " Skipping breakfast increases our risk by 30 to 50 percent, according to Fitness, and watching TV for two or more hours a day boosts it by 14 percent." " Pam O'Brien, the magazine's article director, says the main reason for the story was to point out that people can lower their risk of diabetes in about a month. " " As a former no-breakfast type, O'Brien began to force herself to eat breakfast a few years ago and has felt much better since. " " "So many of us skip breakfast because we're busy and just grab a cup of coffee," she says, describing her own former habit. "It's one of the worst things you can do. People who eat high-fiber cereals respond better to insulin." " " According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes is caused when "the body doesn't produce or properly use insulin." " " Although the exact cause is still unknown, the ADA points to studies that have concluded that genetics and lifestyle factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to be linked to the disease. " " O'Brien says her staff based its conclusions and risk factor percentages on university research and other studies and then crunched all of the numbers. Although Fitness magazine targets women, the nine risks also affect men. " " The two risk factors that most surprised O'Brien were a large waist (risk increases by 330 percent) and high stress (184 percent). " " "All of them were kind of surprising, but how much the waist thing raised your risk surprised me most," O'Brien says. "We're talking the apple-shaped body, fat in the abdomen, fat that is really dangerous." " " Using American Heart Association recommendations, women's waistlines should be less than 35 inches. For men, it's less than 40 inches. " " "And somehow you don't think of stress as being a factor in diabetes," she says. "When we think of stress, we think of a headache or you can't sleep." " " O'Brien's strategy to tackle the nine risk factors is to begin to address two or three and gradually work in more. " " "You don't want to feel like you have to change your life all at once," she says. " "The fix: Switch to water, diet soda or, even better, unsweetened tea, which may actually protect against disease. " "How: Not having that morning meal increases the
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