Tyler, Tx — A new study from the American Diabetes Association found that the cost of diabetes funding has almost doubled in the last five years. The forty-one percent increase is a drastic display of our society's increasing health issues.

Funding for diabetes in 2007 was 174 billion dollars, and in 2012 it had increased to 245 billion dollars.

The increase in funding has not been caused from increased health care costs, but rather from increased findings of diabetes in Americans. In fact, today almost twenty-two million people have either type one or two diabetes.

KETK spoke with nutrition expert Sarah Upson of My Signature Nutrional and she tells us that there are some ways to prevent the disease's onset with lifestyle choices such as exercise and diet.

Upson tells KETK an easy rule of thumb is the "color rule", saying, "I primarily hear people say white and brown are the main colors that they eat. If we could just try and add more colors such as greens, reds, oranges, yellows, purples, all of those colors have different nutrients and all of those different nutrients are very helpful with health promoted compounds and anti-oxidants. They can increase your overall health and help reduce your risk of diabetes."