"DIABESITY"-A NATION HIJACKED!

The alarming increase of childhood diabetes in the United States is a worrying issue for all those concerned with the overall health of the population in a country where the per capita income is one of the highest in the world. Added to this is the worrisome increase in over weight and obesity among the US children which probably must be contributing to faster development of Type 2 diabetes in them. Imagine the dimension of the tragedy and the trauma of a child, when it is supposed to be eating ice creams and enjoy life, is compelled to swallow pills or subjected to insulin shots every day to manage diabetes! If statics tell the true story America is facing a daunting task in saving the child population and save the country from a catastrophe of Himalayan dimension. Though diabetes is treatable by very effective medications, the ground reality is that while "managing" diabetes, a life time drug regime deployed, adversely affect other systems in the body leading to many health complications which are highly debilitating. Here is a graphic commentary about the fast deteriorating health scenario in that country about which practically nothing is being done.

"This study should be a national wake-up call. A siren blaring the insanity of our current medical approach to obesity and Type 2 diabetes for both children and adults. When a 5-year-old has cirrhosis and an 8-year-old has a stroke this is not about personal choice or better medication. Now that scientists have proven that fast food and sugar are biologically addictive, we can't blame the individual or the family. Can a heroin addict just cut down? We need a massive call to action, a national coordinated multi-pronged campaign. We need President Obama and all the Republican candidates to stand before the nation and declare we will end Type 2 diabetes in children by the end of this decade, just like President Kennedy mobilized our nation to get a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The food industry must be held to account. Simple policy changes could have enormous impact. The food industry tries to convince us that all calories are the same, that a snack of carrots or Oreos is the same as long as they are 100 calories each. The science proves otherwise. Sugar calories act differently in the body, driving biology toward diabetes. And carrots aren't addictive, but sugar is. The food industry has hijacked our taste buds, our brain chemistry, our kitchens, our homes, our schools and our communities. When children have nearly unlimited access to sugar and processed food, when we have 600 calories more per day of sugar calories per person than 30 years ago, we have to have an honest accounting of the playing field. The food environment is designed for kids and adults to fail".

What is intriguing is the increase in the consumption of sugar calories by the children through sugar sweetened beverages and relatively easy access to these high sugared products for them. Why there is no parental control on child's selection of foods in the market place or why the industry is serving to the vulnerable palates of children with more and more such products cannot be understood, knowing pretty well that they are courting dangers in the long run in the form of health deterioration from life style disorders. All the more reprehensible is the reaction of the consumers to any meaningful restraint of consumption of such bad foods by the government as reflected by the recent happenings in New York where a modest policy of banning the sale of jumbo sized sodas has attracted hostile response from a section of the citizens there! There does not sem to be any alternative for the US government but to restrain a booming food and beverage industry from marketing patently unhealthy products with high calories and fat. Parents also have equal responsibility in grooming their children on a healthy diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables so that they do not repent later in life.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com