Avani Madhani is on a mission to improve the lives of diabetes patients worldwide. Photo courtesy: Hindustan Times.

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — After three deaths in her family due to type-2 diabetes, Indian-American teenager Avani Madhani sought to improve awareness of the simple lifestyle changes that can be made to combat the disease.

In a report from the Hindustan Times, the California teenager explained that she was just 14 years old when the first diabetes-related death took place in her family.

Her uncle passed from the disease in 2014, then, one year later, her grandfather succumbed to its wrath. There are more than 400 million people worldwide living with diabetes.

“It was then that I started researching about type-2 diabetes and realised that unlike type-1 which is mostly genetic, type-2 is largely a preventable lifestyle disease,” she said to the Times. “A healthy diet and half an hour of physical activity every day can reduce your risk of developing it.”

From the report:

She decided to create a repository of basic nutritional knowledge so that people could educate themselves about healthy eating and living. In 2016, when her maternal grandmother too died of type-2 diabetes, she launched her website – thehealthybeat.com.

It covers all the bases when it comes to eating right: You can check your ideal weight, body mass index, and calculate how many calories you should be consuming in a day. Calorie Counter, a vast database that gives the caloric values of various Indian vegetarian foods from vegetable to pulses and snacks, cooking oils and beverages.

The Build Your Meal section helps you plan your meal mindful of the calories you are piling or lacking. Nutritional Knowledge works like a refresher course by listing all the vitamins and minerals as well as their function, sources, deficiency symptoms and the sources of carbs, fats and dietary fiber.

Madhani said she created content for the website by utilizing online resources, such as the websites of Nutrition Society of India, South Asian Heart Center, Diabetic Association of India and a community college-recommended book on nutrition.