i just read an article on diabetics in the U.S, wich gave me quiet a shock
according to the american medical association, diabetes has increased by 40% in the last 10 years. and if nothing is done quick, 1 out of 3 babys born in 2000 will be diabetics when they grow up.
besides sweat foods, sugar is put in a lot more foods like meat, bread,ā¦the more sugar, the more people eat.
i know thereās a lot more to worry about in the world then this, but it could be stopped by a simple law. sure sugar could be gradually reduced.
I am not so sure this is something that can be stopped by a law.
What exactly would you have such a law do? And how would it be enforced?
What is the legally acceptable punishment for being a Twinkie pusher? Should the total number of Ding-Dongs purchased in a week be tracked on a card which you must present at the grocery to purchase more food?
There are enough government interventions in my life. Just like I donāt want them in my bedroom, I want them to stay the hell out of my kitchen as well.
Getting sodas out of schools was a start, even though it required a law to do it.
Though there are detractors here, I have become acquainted with the glucose/glycemic index-load/Atkins diet approach to health. Though there is much to yet understand, the rise in obesity then diabetes becomes understandable the more you look at sugar and carb intake. People blame fast food. Iāll go along with blaming the potatoes, the huge drink and mebbe the bun but its not the meat and fat thatās messing up peopleās insulin levels etc etc.
If nothing else, consider the plethora of types of soda now. We just have more of everything snacky, and almost all of it has sugar. Itās ridiculous and its killinā us.
In the U.S., they tried prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, and it didnāt work so well. . . Iāll grant that diets today are abominable.
Of course, we must distinguish between Type II diabetes (what used to be known as age-related diabetes but is found in children and young adults more and more), which this article is apparently talking about, and Type I (what they used to call juvenile-onset diabetes). In Type I, diet doesnāt cause itāthe pancreas just shuts down, and one must go on insulin for life.
If you look at the ingredients in many foods on the grocery shelf, you find an amazing amount of sugar, corn syrup, refined carbohydrates, salt. These are things that tend to create food cravings when eaten regularly.
I donāt believe anyone has set this up on purpose. I believe whatās happened is, food companies have done market research to figure out what formulations sell best. When they change a recipe and people buy more of it, they stay with that formulation until they can find a recipe that sells even more.
The result is, without intending to base their businesses on food cravings or āaddictions,ā food companies, by simply following sales trends, have inadvertantly done exactly that.
I read this thread without picking up Weekās comments about the Glycemic Index. The Glycemic Index is gathering more and more research validation over time.
My mother was recently diagnosed with type II diabetes. I told her about the Glycemic Index, mailed her a the food list, and she systematically tested it on herself. By testing her blood sugar before and after eating, she found she could identify the foods that caused her blood sugar to spike. The Glycemic Index predicted this very accurately. By adjusting her diet to avoid foods high on the Index, she has been able to avoid having to take oral anti-glycemic drugs, and her physician commented that sheās the best regulated diabetic heās ever seen in his practice.
It just isnāt a U.S. problem, here in Canada the numbers are rising fast also and Europe is having the same problem.
Where to start on the problem, what action to take, is starting to put a strain on our medical facilities, our society, not to say the least on our societies.
Here in my library, the increasing questions that we get for information on diabetes is rising also and we canāt meet demand.
Sugar in and of itself isnāt the culprit. Obesity and genetics tend to work in concert to produce type II diabetes.
I remember reading an article on how food portions in resturants have more than doubled since the 70ās. People also walk less than the 70ās, we all drive everywhere.
The fact of the matter is that people just have an unbalanced diet (frankly, I think people should eat LESS fat and MORE complex carbohydrates), donāt excersize, and often become obese. And if they carry the wrong genes, then obesity can trigger Diabetes. Somebody whoās relatively fit and active and otherwise eats a balanced diet can probably guzzle soda and eat twinkies every day and never develop the disease.
Iām not a scientist, but I think itās safe to say that our increasingly sedentary lifestyle is what is killing us. Itās not just Diabetes after all. Heart disease has also risen over the past few generations. Whatās the difference between people now and people 100 years ago? Weāre not out working in the fields or factory all day. We sit at desks and the only part of us getting a workout is our fingers and our patience. Iām not being self-righteous, God knows I sit on my ass more hours out of the day than most, but thereās no denying whatās happened. But pinning it on a single cause (sugar) seems rather silly to me. Itās the result of a lot of different factors, like most things.
Exercise is very important. It helps you keep your weight down, lowers LDL, Raises HDL, Lowers blood pressure and heart rate. Another importantant step is to read labels. Until I started reading labels I didnāt realize that many common foods like canned soup, canned vegetables, canned meats have more than a days allowance of sodium. The fat content in some foods is astronomical. Once I started paying attention I lost 40 lbs in the last 5 months. Remember that diabetes carries a lot of additional problems. It is one of the risk factors for heart desease. It also contributes to loss of vision. The government canāt fix it. Individual action is the only way to make a difference. Instead of McDs go to Subway and have a low fat sub. Switch from hamburgers to tomatoe sandwiches. Eat right, exercise, and keep whistling.
The Undisputed is diabetic. I fit the mold pretty well of an early-21st century Type II diabetic. Iām at least 50 lbs overweight, have always avoided exercise, and, for years, tried to heed the low-fat, high-carbohydrate advice. That kept my blood lipids down but probably hastened the development of the diabetes. Fortunately, my blood sugars have been well-controlled with a modest dose of Glucophage XR and a moderate reduction of the carbs in my diet.
Iāve read a number of the authors that promote the low-carb approaches: Atkins, the Sugar-Busters people, and Berstein (a diabetes M.D. who argues for a very low carb diet). I have to say I think it makes sense to me. I also agree with them that dietary fat has been somewhat demonized, although I suspect that they have gone a little too far in the direction of a āfat-is-no-problemā way of thinking. I believe the harsh reality is going to remain: You gotta exercise, you gotta moderate fats, carbs, AND total calories. Itās hard.
One other thing. Hereās a little poll for you: How many people have you known that were obese (not just a bit overweight but truly obese) who lost weight and kept it off for more than 2 years? How many people do you know who were obese, lost a lot of weight, and put it back on?
I think there is a whole bunch of truth to what you are saying. I think the human body is still built for a lifestyle that involved constant activity to survive and forage for food. Civilization has zipped us past that really fast and bodies canāt evolve fast enough to keep up with the changes. If we still walked, ran, and worked all day in exchange for gnawing on a gazelleās appendage and maybe a couple of root vegetables, I donāt think many of us would be fat.
The exercise factor was measured by a very interesting study that compared rates of type II diabetes among Amish with rates among a population with similar dietary habits and similar North Eurpean/American ethnic background.
The finding was, rates of obesity among that Amish population were similar to rates in the comparison/typical white American group. Rates of type II diabetes, however, were strikingly lower among the Amish.
Why? No TV to vegitate in front of, no cars to keep them from walking from point A to point B. In a nutshell, exercise.
But this shouldnāt be taken to mean that obesity is benign and inactivity is the culprit. It only means that the amount of daily exercise typical of the pre-industrial Amish lifestyle was able to offset to a significant extent, the diabetes risk obesity poses.
Best wishes,
Jerry
P.S. I believe we are beginning to get a sense of where type II diabetes comes from. More and more, thereās discussion of āMetabolic Syndromeā and āSyndrome X,ā in which long term over-stimulation of insulin triggered by excessive dietary glycemic load leads to insulin resistance in susceptible populations.
Dale wrote
One other thing. Hereās a little poll for you: How many people have you known that were obese (not just a bit overweight but truly obese) who lost weight and kept it off for more than 2 years?
My sister-in-law was about 50% over her ideal weight. She got on one of the programs, weight watchers or something. Over a period of months she lost down to her ideal weight and has kept it off for about 5 years.
I lost down to me ideal weight about 15 years ago while my daughter was no longer living with us. I kept it off for about 3 years because I was eating a diet of whole grains, vegetables, fruits and meat very sparingly. My daughter came back home and said she couldnāt eat that way and slowly we went back to our old habits and I gained it back. When I retired eating out was easier than cooking and my weight did not come down. I now have more incentive. When you are lying there with a scar up your chest and the doctor is telling you need to make some lifestyle changes if you want to continue to live you listen very carefully.
I have never exercised at all but I do now. I even noticed that when I was in Ireland I ate a lot of food I would not now even think about(traditional Irish breakfast, the 1/2 pound hamburger in the Elephant and Castle in Temple Bar). But because we were doing a lot of walking, climbing, etc. I actually lost 10 pounds.
We need to work on the lifestyle changes as if it was a life and death issue because it is. Keep whistling
One of the major problems of diabetes is that millions (yes millions) are unaware that they are sufferers. Often symptoms are dismissed as part of the ageing process and the seeking of medical advice is put off until serious damage is done to kidneys, circulatory system, heart or eyesight.
In the UK (and Iād guess it to be no different in the US) diabetes is the number one cause of blindness and of limb amputation.
Whilst there appears to be a link between type II diabetes and obeisity it is by no means exclusive. For instance Steve Redgrave, the Olympic rower who is certainly not overweight or lacking in exercise is a sufferer. The cause of the disease is simply not known.
If you suffer from tiredness and/or excessive thirst, dehydration etc. please seek medical advice before the damage is done.
Incidently for sufferers of diabetes - note the use of the term diabetic is apparently now considered to be politically incorrect - the enthusiastic playing of whistles is great excercise and can dramatically lower your bg levels. I do, of course speak from personal experience.
Well like I said, genetics is probably a key factor. Some active thin people get it, and some of us fat arses live to be 80 with no problem. Funny world we live inā¦
Switching to a vegetarian diet is a great way to control type 2 diabetes and prevent getting it in the first place. A vegan diet is even better. There are plenty of sites on the web to get you started and give you ideas for meal planning. I love it when I have time to cook . . . itās filling but low in fat. Wish I had more time . . . I have to remember to curb the snacking, because I end up eating too many empty calories.
Since Type 2 diabetes seems to be influence most by diet, the best thing to do would be adopting a better diet.
I read a low carb book by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein, and the reasoning sounds pretty good to me. But I agree with Dale in that these Dr.s are probably going a little overboard with the good fat thing. The hard part for me is staying psyched up enough to do the cooking required to maintain a healthy diet (the Monster lives alone, sniff, sniff) itās much easier to pop a frozen dinner into the microwave.
I too am a type II diabetic of about 5 years. The diabetic counseling I went through explained a lot, but one of the main things they said is that anyone who hasnāt seen a diabetic counselor/dietician in the last five years, needs to go again. They are learning more every day about how all this works.
The focus now is (1) total carbs, (2) pure sugar, and (3) body stressors. All foods have carbohydrates and this is what the body converts to sugar to burn for fuel. Some foods have more than others. Too many carbs = too much sugar and the excess is converted to fat. Diabetics are encouraged to eat well rounded diets and monitor their total carb intake. That gives you freedom to eat what you want and still keep your carbs within reasonable limits.
All forms of pure sugar are bad as the body has to work really hard to process it. This includes ripe fruits and especially dried fruits (which are loaded with sugar and are considered off limits by most diabetic counselors). The body stressors everyone else has mentioned - excess weight and lack of exercise. Anything that makes the body less efficient in functioning causes the organs to have to work harder to do their job. The pancreas seems easily affected.
The diet plans I have been advised to follow have limited low-fat meat, lots of āfreeā vegetables (those with little or no carbs) and very few pure carbs (corn, potatoes, rice, etc.). Typically it only takes 1/4 cup of a starchy carb like corn to equal one ācarbā - when you only get 3-5 for an entire meal, that is a really bad food choice.
