After Nadia Sawalha 's father received a surprise type 2 diabetes diagnosis 35 years ago he became fastidious about good nutrition.
And although the Loose Women panellist jokes that his endless talk of healthy eating grew tiresome, she now credits actor Nadim Sawalha for helping protect her from the disease.
"After his diagnosis, Dad was religious with his food and when I was younger I used to think, 'Oh God, if I hear one more thing about green vegetables and blood sugar,' but it all went in by osmosis," says Nadia, 57.
"I really admire my father for working so hard to manage his type 2 diabetes and now all that knowledge he has passed down to me is in play now."
The TV star and mum of two, who found fame playing Annie Palmer in EastEnders in the late 1990s, discovered she was at a "moderately high risk" of becoming prediabetic during a live episode of ITV 's Loose Women in 2018.
The results of the Diabetes UK online Know Your Risk test meant that Nadia had a one-in-seven chance of developing the disease in the next decade.
Type 2 diabetes, a lifelong condition that occurs when the body fails to use insulin properly (the hormone regulates the movement of sugar into cells and controls the body’s blood sugar), usually affects people over 40.
However, over the last five years Diabetes UK has noted a 50 per cent increase in children receiving treatment for the condition, which links to the country's soaring obesity rates.
Needing to pass urine more often, a raging thirst, wounds taking longer to heal, blurred vision and unexplained weight loss are all symptoms. However, one in four sufferers experience no symptoms at all.
Nadim - who's had over 100 film and TV appearances such as in The Bill, The Sweeney and Bond movie The Living Daylights - was oblivious to his underlying health problems until he took a medical insurance health assessment before appearing in a movie when he was in his early fifties.
"It was a shock for us all when Dad was told he had diabetes," recalls Nadia. "He hadn't sought medical help because of symptoms - the diabetes had been ticking away without him knowing."
"I remember being horrified when he first did the blood test and being panic-stricken. Before then, nothing bad had happened to our family healthwise. It was a huge worry.
"If diabetes is not looked after, it can be such a debilitating illness. As well as high blood pressure hardening the arteries, high blood sugar can damage your vision, heart, nerves, kidneys and even your feet."
Although type 2 diabetes is linked to factors including family history, age and ethnic background, according to Diabetes UK you're more at risk if you carry extra weight, especially around your midriff. Research also suggests that the condition is mainly put into remission through weight loss.
By transforming his health, Nadia's father, now 86, has successfully managed his condition for more than three decades.
He implemented and stuck to a healthy, balanced diet packed with fibre, which slows the absorption of sugar and fat from food, wholegrains, which have a lower glycaemic index, and lean meat, while cutting back on sugar and salt.
He also introduced regular walks, especially after meals to lower his blood glucose levels.
But although people are up to 60 per cent more likely to be affected by type 2 diabetes if a parent has the condition, Nadia says it wasn't until she received her own diabetes test results that she took her health seriously.
She said: "There were so many decades when I just did whatever I wanted - I drank whatever I wanted, I ate whatever I wanted, I didn't look after myself.
"I feel really grateful that in my fifties I'm looking after myself. I'm really hopeful that I've changed my path. It was a good warning.
"I knew where I was heading. I was told I would become prediabetic if I continued on this trajectory, if I continued putting on weight, and something had to change."
Nadia has previously spoken about how, since a young age, she has tried "every single fad diet," which led to poor body image and perpetually fluctuating weight.
But since following her father'S lead, Nadia has lost weight and says she is a "comfortable size 14" compared to "a bit tight size 16" four years ago.
"For most of my adult life, I thought moderation was the most unsexy word on the planet but actually, it's the only way," explains Nadia, who enjoys a nutrition-rich diet, while occasionally allowing herself her favourite treat - cake.
"Watching your weight is so important for your health and now everything I choose to do exercise-wise and diet-wise is about holding back the seed for any diseases that could come my way.
"You can try every diet and every extreme exercise, but to settle into a place of wellness, where you're not obsessing about food and losing weight, the key is to eat well as much as you can – and sometimes not, enjoy eating some rubbish sometimes, enjoy a bit too much wine – and to move. Just keep moving. I now do all of that."
Just like her father, Nadia is passionate about walking to promote health. "Walking is such a powerful and underrated exercise. No matter what you’re looking for – lowering your blood sugar, losing weight, bettering your mental health – it's an amazing, free tool," says Nadia.
She's supporting the Fitbit and Diabetes UK One Million Step Challenge, which encourages people to walk 10,000 steps a day over the three months of summer. Funds raised will go towards diabetes prevention and management.
At home in London, Nadia and her TV producer husband Mark Adderley, 51 - who share daughters Maddie, 19, and Kiki, 14 - are in daily competition to out-walk each other using their Fitbits.
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"We've been doing step challenges between us for years," says Nadia. "He's the most competitive person on the planet and can get over the top. I can't usually get ahead of him but the one time I did, he got up out of bed and was running up and down the blinking stairs to build more steps than me.
"Although the idea of beating Mark's step count is an incentive, the biggest reward is health. Maintaining 10,000 steps a day keeps me well and fit and even over the past six months my resting heart rate has reduced from 90bpm to 69bpm."
Because sedentary behaviour is a primary contributor to type 2 diabetes, these days Nadia wastes no opportunity to be active. As well as dancing around her kitchen while placing online grocery orders, during our chat she paces around her dressing room at Loose Women HQ.
She also got into yoga during lockdown and, more recently, took up weight training, which she says is building her a stronger, more flexible body to carry her into older age.
"I've created an image in my head of what sort of older person I want to be. I watch the elderly in my family and tweak whatever I’m doing based on whatever ailments they've got," says Nadia.
"My mother-in-law is so sharp but has bad knees and struggles a bit when she moves around because she hasn't done any muscle-building exercise or yoga. I don't want my body to be like that so as well as yoga and weight training.
"I go to the osteopath every two months. I'm putting into the universe what I want to be like, rather than writing myself off, going, 'Oh well, I’m heading into my 60s now'. I don't want that."
Nadia hopes she can inspire others to take positive action if they feel their lifestyles are putting them at risk of developing diabetes.
"I hear people say, 'I'm heading for diabetes the way I'm going'. Well, you don't have to be. Right here, right now – today – you could change that path," she says.
"I've seen up close the benefits that those changes bring and I'm proof that small changes can make a big difference."
Fitbit and Diabetes UK are calling on the nation to sign up for the One Million Step Challenge (step.diabetes.org.uk). This summer, take steps to get fit and raise funds to change the lives of everyone living with, or at risk of developing, diabetes.
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