During a promotional tour for his latest movie “Elvis”, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks has described how he deals with type 2 diabetes, which he says was caused by a mixture of genes and unhealthy eating patterns.

The actor, now 65, first opened up about his type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2013. About 90 percent of people living with diabetes have developed type 2 diabetes. It is also the most common type of diabetes in people over the age of 60. 

According to Tom, he was warned by his doctor that he had pre-diabetes but he ignored the red flag.

Once he had developed type 2, Tom’s doctor suggested he should get down to the same weight he was as a teenager to maximise his chances of putting the condition into remission.

Tom replied: “Well, I’m going to have type 2 diabetes then, because there is no way I can weigh [what I weighed] in high school.” Despite his initial resistance, the star has made several life adjustments over the years which have helped him lose weight.

Family history

He said his family history of diabetes as well as his lifestyle contributed to him developing the condition.

“Part of it is because of my genes and part of it is because of the horrible lifestyle that I led of eating anything I wanted. 

“So now the first thing that I do is I try to take care of that.”

Exercise

Tom said daily exercise was also an important tool to help him manage his condition.

“I try to get, every single day, one hour of activity.

“That can be anything from a treadmill, or a walk, or a hike with a dog, but it has to be one hour every single day.”

Diet

In a past interview with England’s Radio Times, the actor, who plays Elvis’s manipulative manager Colonel Tom Parker, admitted he had been a “total idiot” about his weight and relationship with food.

“I’m part of the lazy American generation that has blindly kept dancing through the party and now finds ourselves with a malady.

“I was heavy. You’ve seen me in movies, you know what I looked like. I was a total idiot.

“I thought I could avoid it by removing the buns from my cheeseburgers.”

Despite his early naivety about healthy eating, Tom said although he is careful about his diet now, he has a few slip ups. He describes the resilience needed to lose weight and manage his type 2 in colourful language not often used by diabetes health professionals.

“I watch what I eat to the point of boredom,” he said.

“Every now and again I cheat to the point of self-loathing. That’s it. 

“So after that, I have some coffee, read the paper, get up, get the workout out of the way, take a shower.”

Diabetes Australia Accredited Practising Dietitian, Dale Cooke, said people with type 2 could learn from Tom’s experience.

“Don’t beat yourself up. Falling off the wagon happens to everyone, even movie stars from the sound of it. The important thing is resuming healthy eating. If it happens, move on, because if you get stressed, your blood glucose levels will go higher. You’ve got to be kind to yourself.”