What Do the Experts Say pt.2

Hello, everybody. How you doing? Well, I hope. Ready? Here goes.

Although you can’t ‘catch’ diabetes, it is spreading like crazy. Since 1980, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has risen by 47 percent, and it’s expected to skyrocket in the next 10 years. Almost half of American men today either have it, or are in the pre-stages of getting it. That’s from the National Institutes of Health. Diabetes is the main cause of cardiovascular disease, cutting a man’s life span by 13 years! Even if you don’t die early from diabetes, you could become impotent (argh), go blind, suffer from kidney failure, or, most likely, lose a foot. Did you know a limb or digit is amputated because of gangrene every 6 minutes just in the United States?

Type 2 diabetes used to be called ‘adult-onset’ diabetes, because it mostly struck overweight, sedentary, middle-aged adults, but that’s no longer the case. We’re now seeing an epidemic in kids under the age of 10!

What’s the American Diabetes Association doing about it? First of all, they came up with a diabetic food pyramid that’s upside down. Their web site even states, "you should eat more servings of grains, beans, and starchy vegetables than any of the other foods." What? A slice of typical whole wheat bread is over 80 percent starch! And while sweets are at the top of the pyramid, as they should be, if at all, so are "fats" and "oils". Is their focus really on high blood sugar or something else? Marion Franz, R.D., who helped write the ADA’s nutrition recommendations states, "Long-term, what you’re really concerned about is heart disease. It’s the major cause of death for people with diabetes." So, what they are really fighting is a complication of diabetes, not diabetes itself.

And don’t get me started on the fact that they push drugs as much as their upside down pyramid. In 2006, they issued a statement advising that ALL people, newly diagnosed with Type 2 IMMEDIATELY start taking metformin! Metformin’s total sales in 2005 were almost $1.1 billion! Whose hands are in whose pockets? I’m just saying. And remember, this is just a blog. I am not a doctor, I am not a news reporter, I am just one man who took control over his diabetes and wants to help others, so always keep that in mind as you read this. But a lot of experts seem to agree. Richard Feinman, Ph. D., director of the Nutrition and Metabolism Society and professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate medical center in New York City says, "They’re contradicting themselves. They want diabetics to take medication to lower their blood sugar, but recommend a diet that has the opposite effect."

Now, I'm not, by any means saying that the ADA is bad, or that they don't do good work. I just don't agree with everything they say.

So, anyway, enough of that for today. I’m getting a little red-faced. How about tomorrow we talk about what diabetes actually is. In layman’s terms of course, because that’s what I understand. See ya!

Men's Health, "A Cure for Diabetes"
http://www.menshealth.com/men/health/other-diseases-ailments/the-cure-for-diabetes/article/4a935e4e40fae010VgnVCM20000012281eac