What diet to prevent diabetes?

Diabetes seems to be the disease everyone is getting these days. I keep hearing different things about diets; that one should either not eat ANY carbohydrates, do not eat ANY sugar, others says only refined sugar, still others say complex carbohydrates are ok, etc. Pretty soon, I expect to hear tht all food leads to diabetes and the best chance of avoiding it is to not eat anything. Short of that, I am trying to work out a diet plan where I can safely eat the same thing every day for the rest of my life and not get diabetes. I my job/lifestyle is relatively sedentary. What foods to stay away from?