Does US food system grow diabetes?
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Does US food system grow diabetes?
| Wed, 06-10-2009 - 9:52pm |
Food Inc: Does our food system grow diabetes?
We are a fast food nation. Consumed by convenience. Trapped by omnipresent cheap food. Plagued by widespread excess weight and obesity, most alarmingly among our kids. Racked by epidemic levels of type 2 diabetes, now showing up even in children.
Food Inc., the new documentary film opening in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco this Friday, June 12, offers chilling insights into the dilemma of eating low cost but high-calorie, sugar-laden foods from an increasingly monolithic food industry. We witness a Latino family--with a diabetic father--struggle to eat healthy foods. Problem is they just can't afford to. And we see a high percentage of high school students raise their hands to indicate how many have one, two, or more family members with diabetes.
The CDC estimates that 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset, or childhood diabetes. Among African Americans and Latinos, the rate will be 1 in 2. Comparable numbers exist for Type 2 diabetes, with an alarming rate of children now developing what had been the adult-onset version of this epidemic. The consequences are well documented: blindness, amputations, kidney dialysis, heart disease and early death.
Food Inc., the new documentary film opening in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco this Friday, June 12, offers chilling insights into the dilemma of eating low cost but high-calorie, sugar-laden foods from an increasingly monolithic food industry. We witness a Latino family--with a diabetic father--struggle to eat healthy foods. Problem is they just can't afford to. And we see a high percentage of high school students raise their hands to indicate how many have one, two, or more family members with diabetes.
The CDC estimates that 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset, or childhood diabetes. Among African Americans and Latinos, the rate will be 1 in 2. Comparable numbers exist for Type 2 diabetes, with an alarming rate of children now developing what had been the adult-onset version of this epidemic. The consequences are well documented: blindness, amputations, kidney dialysis, heart disease and early death.
Some small steps you can take: Read the labels before you buy your food. Try cutting back on sodas and other sweetened beverages. It might cut your risk of developing diabetes. It's estimated that you can lose 25 pounds in one year just by replacing one 20 ounce soda each day with a no-calorie beverage. Go wild: try water.
Joel Salatin, a family farmer featured in the film, ponders: "Imagine what it would be if, as a national policy, we said we would be only successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year? The idea then would be to have such nutritionally dense, unadulterated foods that people who ate it actually felt better, had more energy and weren't sick as much... now see, that's a noble goal." -- Richard Kaplan
Joel Salatin, a family farmer featured in the film, ponders: "Imagine what it would be if, as a national policy, we said we would be only successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year? The idea then would be to have such nutritionally dense, unadulterated foods that people who ate it actually felt better, had more energy and weren't sick as much... now see, that's a noble goal." -- Richard Kaplan







Wish less kids/people would watch what they eat ..
While Fast food is convenient .. it is costly in many ways :)
Very interesting reading Nadine.
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