Halle Berry Says Diabetes Changed Everything About How She Eats and Exercises
The actor shared how changing her nutrition and exercise routine helped reshape her approach to living with diabetes.
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
Halle Berry has been living with type 1 diabetes since she was 19, and in a conversation with Robin Arzon at Santa Monica Proper’s Peloton Residency, she talked candidly about how much that diagnosis reshaped her relationship with food and movement.
“Everything had to change,” Berry said. “My nutrition, what I eat, became very important.” That shift, she explained, eventually led to a change in her treatment. “I realized that I could get off insulin,” Berry shared, “and [went] onto oral medication for my diabetes by just changing what I ate and my exercise.” She noted that she still lives with the condition day to day. “I’m a type one diabetic,” she said.
Discover the new insights in perimenopause and menopause
For Berry, nutrition and exercise work together, and one often has to compensate for the other. “Eating was a big part of that,” she said. “So if I can’t exercise, I’m definitely going to eat right.” It’s not the first time Berry has spoken publicly about adjusting her diabetes treatment through diet and exercise. In 2007, she said in an interview she “managed to wean [herself] off insulin,” and in an Instagram post, credited the ketogenic diet with slowing her aging process.
“Being diabetic most of my life, I have always had to take food very seriously,” she wrote. “So for years, I have been following the keto or ketogenic diet. I hate the word ‘diet’ so while you’ll see the word diet, just know I encourage you to think of it as a lifestyle change NOT A DIET! Keto is a very low-carb food plan which actually forces your body to burn fat like crazy. I also believe it’s been largely responsible for slowing down my aging process.”
RELATED: Balancing Your Health Naturally with Food and Lifestyle Changes
She went on to list what she saw as the lifestyle’s other benefits: “The keto lifestyle offers so many benefits such as weight loss, (moms that’s how we get rid of our baby bellies), appetite control, more energy and better mental performance. If you’re like me, you can possibly reverse type 2 diabetes, you’ll experience better physical endurance, better skin and also less acne if that’s an issue. And it even helps control migraines!”
Berry has also been vocal about the emotional side of managing a chronic condition, especially as she’s gotten older. She’s spoken about the importance of letting the people closest to you in on what you’re going through, rather than carrying it alone. “Don’t carry it all by yourself,” she said. “Tell somebody how you’re feeling.”
MORE LIVE & WELL
