I found this editorial written by Sara Sklaroff, who used to be the editor in chief of ADA Diabetes Forecast magazine. I think she verbalized a lot of our frustrations and needs beautifully, and would be interested in what you can add to what she wrote! :-)
Wonderful & honest article that gets to the core of our collective frustration. Every recommendation is on target. Sara didn't miss a thing that I can think of. Thanks for posting. Encouraging to read advocacy for the changes critically needed.
Good and honest article. Thanks Natalie for posting this.
Great article Natalie..
I will pass it to my girlfriend to read, I keep leaving books lying around for my girlfriend and she doesn't get very far with them, probably due to boredom ha..
This article effectively summates 95% of my feelings on the subject.
Cheers.
Thanks for sharing article.
Thanks for posting this Natalie. I think it's just another sign that change is on the way, slowly, but inevitably.
Love the advice from the nutritionist “Don’t go to McDonald’s. But if you do, make sure you get lettuce and tomato on your hamburger.” I might add, "Don't forget to put plenty of catchup on your fries":) If only that was all we needed to do!
I liked it SO much I sent out this letter on my personal email so that others I know could read it:
.
Dear Friends and Family
This article is long...but it is REAL, one of the most succinct, and genuine pieces that I have have ever read about diabetes and how it affects persons both individually and collectively as a country. If you have diabetes,pre-diabetes, or know someone with diabetes( Who doesn't?) I would like to have you read it for better understanding.
Please read it.:http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/31/1/236.full
Share it with others if you like.
God bless, Brunetta
Thanks for sharing this article Natalie. I'm going to print it out to share with my family and may even send it to my state legislative and congressional delegations.
And Natalie, thanks for the share!! You are so great to help us out so much!!
God bless,
Brunetta
This article is poignant and depressing. The issue is focused on the diabetes "crisis" and the public health initiative exemplified by the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). And the DPP, as I have written before is whacked. It blames diabetes on poor eating habits and obesity arguing that if you can get people to lose weight you can prevent diabetes. Personally, I hate the DPP, it is a twisted and perverse application of a badly designed study and worst of all it is setting out to initiate a program that is guaranteed to fail. Anybody can look through the materials for the DPP. Here is the formula for preventing diabetes
1. Eat less
2. Eat low fat
3. Exercise
If you look carefully through the materials, you won't find a single mention of carbohydrates or even sugar. This is the material that is designed to educate the american public about diabetes and how to "prevent" it and it doesn't even mention that carbohydrates raise your blood sugar.
Successful participants in this program may well lose a few pounds and their blood sugar may well improve for the short term. But there is no evidence that fat and calorie restriction leads to long term weight loss, let alone being a good blood sugar management tool.
We are in deep, deep trouble. Thank goodness we have certified nutritionists, I am sure they will quickly fix all this.
I agree. I am getting really tired of the facts not getting put out there regarding diabetes. At least the woman who wrote this article differentiated between the two main kinds of diabetes.
Yes, maintaining a healthy weight and exercising can lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but it does not eliminate that risk. A friend of mine was diagnosed with T2 a couple of years ago. He's never been overweight and has always exercised and eaten a generally healthy diet (not perfect, but certainly not so bad that you would have looked at him and said, "gee, you're gonna get T2 diabetes!")
I wish efforts like this would at least acknowledge that there is a genetic component at play and there's still a lot we don't know about the cluster of conditions we generally refer to as "diabetes." I also wish more would be done to differentiate between the kinds of diabetes as we know them today. I am tired of having to explain to health professionals that, as a type 1, the only option I have for survival is insulin. It really makes me scared for my health when I have to explain this to the very people who are supposed to be caring for me!
The nutritionist's will tell you the answer is to eat more vegetables
I wish I had known this before I got T2
I whole heartedly agree MyBustedPancreas. It makes me worry when my own doctors who I see regularly assume that I'm Type 2 because of my age. Don't they read my chart? I've had to make them correct paperwork prior to surgery. Even my PCP (an internist) once told me while looking over blood work results "your blood sugar is a little elevated....oh that's right, I forgot you're diabetic". Big sigh.
Good stuff. I am passing this on and posting to FB.
Wow. 114 pages, and the only time the letters "carb" appear next to each other is on a single page which displays a nutrition label. (the word is only on the label itself, not discussed).
I am not easily surprised about this stuff, but that took me back. What is WRONG with the medical community (as a whole)???
Oh man thanks for this, long family history here of diabetes. Funny when my mom and aunts were dx in there late teens and early 20s they were and still are thin. So how did they do that to themselves since they always want to blame weight. They did not eat the donuts or the cakes a cookies that seem to make us type 2 they had out of the garden lifes. My mom and aunts never were heavy and always exercised the one is 85 lbs and still going and yes still type 2 diabetic. It irks me how the media and medical field always wants to blame, thanks for your help medical field.