Does US food system grow diabetes?

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Registered: 05-15-2003
Does US food system grow diabetes?
3
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.

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

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Wed, 06-10-2009 - 11:14pm
Wow pretty interesting Nadine,
Wish less kids/people would watch what they eat ..
While Fast food is convenient .. it is costly in many ways :)
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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2008
Wed, 06-10-2009 - 11:41pm

Very interesting reading Nadine.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2008
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 9:46am
I am not surprised. I am a big label reader. It is amazing that so many foods we expect to be healthy or not-so-bad have lots of junk in them. For instance, I only buy organic pretzels or Snyder's. Rold Gold and others have HFC in them. Why would regular pretzels need to have corn syrup in them?!? I avoid foods that have artificial anything and MSG. I think many companies are hearing our plea for healthier "food helpers". It makes preparing meals much quicker and easier to have a box of (ie) rice with flavorings in it. Near East now has "Whole Grain" blends and I can read all of the ingredients and know what they are. There are definitely ways to make preparing meals easier with the help of packaged foods and if we take a few moments to read the ingredients it can be tasty and *healthy*, too. Now, having said that I typically don't take into consideration the amount of fat and sodium in these foods and many people may have to pay attention to that. The way that I *personally* look at it, if we have normal portions of natural/healthy foods I don't think that fat and calories is something that we need to worry too much about in our family. Please let me know if you agree or disagree. (This is just what happens to works for us.)

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"A smile is a light in the window which shows the heart is at home." ~Martin Buxbaum "A closed mind lets nothing in. . .or, for that matter, nothing out. ~SB