For a country so obsessed with health and being thin, we sure take the cake (and eat it too) for our unhealthy status. The numbers don’t lie. One in every four older Americans are now diagnosed with diabetes, according to a 2008 study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nearly two out of three Americans are overweight. Half of these overweight Americans are frankly obese. This is twice as much obesity as in 1976-1980,” said Daniel J. DeNoon, in a WebMD interview.

Since the ‘90s, the American population has heard warnings of a diabetes epidemic. Then, early in 2001, the experts saw their devastating predictions come to fruition in what the government called “dramatic evidence of an unfolding epidemic.” For nearly seven years we have lived among the epidemic which continues to plague our nation. Stats like “Seven percent of Americans have diabetes”; “one in three children born since 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime”; or “diabetes sucks $132 billion from the US economy annually” are news to no one. We know the facts. In fact, they have become as commonplace as to desensitize our proactivity against diabetes. We need to start acting responsibly for the knowledge and warnings we receive. Individually, we need to ask, “What am I doing to prevent diabetes?” As a nation we need to ask, “Why do doctors still diagnose 1.5 million new cases of diabetes each year?” More importantly, “Why do federal experts predict that the diabetes epidemic will continue unabated?” We interviewed local medical specialists to hear their take on why the diabetes epidemic still reigns strong and what we need to do about it.

“Diabetes in the United States rose by about 6 percent in 1999 in what the government called dramatic evidence of an unfolding epidemic,” said Joseph Mercola, MD Feb. 2001.

And, this situation is getting worse. The U.S. saw an increase of 3 million cases in 2008 in just two years.

Judy Rogers, BSN, RN, CCRC, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the University of Utah School of Medicine says we cannot change our genetic inheritance or ethnic makeup but we can implement strategies to live a healthier lifestyle.

This may be the most important factor in diabetes treatment; as in many cases, Type 2 Diabetes can be prevented or at least delayed, and for those who already have the disease, the complications can be greatly reduced… Exercise as well as diet are central to the control of [diabetes complications]. While many people with diabetes need to take medication to assist with control, diet and exercise remain the cornerstones of treatment. In the September 18, 2007 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine Ronald J. Sigal, MD, MPH, from the University of Calgary reported that the combination of aerobic and resistance training provide the greatest improvement in glycemic control … Progression to diabetes among obese persons and those with pre-diabetes is not inevitable. Many studies have shown that weight loss and increased physical activity can delay or completely prevent the onset of Type 2 Diabetes and its many debilitating and life threatening co-morbidities and can decrease the complications for those who already have diabetes.

Judy Rogers recommends an educational program put on by the National Institutes of Health called Small Steps, Big Rewards: Prevent Type 2 Diabetes. Visit their website at www.ndep.nih.gov for complete details.

Erin Miller, RDCD, Dietician and Weight Management and Bariatrics specialist at St. Mark’s Hospital says, with every emotion and every situation, we are surrounded by food. With a type II diabetic, it’s about controlling that. As a person’s BMI increases, their risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes increases, as well as their risk for other chronic diseases. Keeping a person’s BMI in healthy limits is key. To do this, an important first step is watching and controlling portion sizes. The portion sizes we are served are so unbelievable huge today. With awareness, we need education! We stress education with everything, with every patient in every situation. We see a lot of confusion with food and proper diet, especially on carbohydrates, what they are and where they are found. People also need increased awareness of the fat and sodium content of the foods they eat. This awareness starts with reading food labels and then avoiding foods with high levels of sodium, fat, sugar, and processed carbohydrates (carbohydrates with little to no fiber content).

By far the best step in awareness is self-awareness. Keep a food and activity record. This really opens our patients’ eyes to see where they are starting from. We see great results from food journals because it provides a way for our patients to educate themselves and tell themselves where they need to change. When choosing a diet, do not eliminate any food group. Each food group contains certain vitamins and minerals – don’t cheat your body. Whether you want to prevent diabetes, reduce your current symptoms, or you are recovering from bariatric surgery, education, proper diet, and physical activity really are the most important steps. Be compliant with your diet. Learn what an appropriate portion size is. Be physically active. Lose weight and keep the weight off. Research defi nitely shows that physical activity keeps weight off and keeps diabetes at bay.

Dawn Armstrong, Director of Bariatric and Weight Management Services at St. Marks Hospital says, obesity is a multifaceted disease affected by our lifestyle, food choices, and genetics. Our genetics may load the gun, but our habits pull the trigger. There are several things that we can do to combat diabetes continuing as an epidemic. First, we need to look at the onset of weight gain caused by the simple pleasures that we’ve taken too liberally.

We now live a sedentary lifestyle with a poor diet full of appetite stimulants and poor dietary education. Diabetes is nondiscriminatory! Children eat these appetite stimulants on a regular basis. Take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich: the bread, the peanut butter, and the jelly may all contain high fructose corn syrup, an appetite stimulant present in most foods we eat as Americans … A lot of it comes back to lack of education. Most parents and adults do not understand what we need to put into our bodies and they are not aware of the appetite stimulants in the food they eat and feed to their children. Parents have a huge responsibility. We all learn from example, so our children will mimic us. We need to eat less, exercise more, and when we do sit down we can emphasize that food is not just about what tastes good. The best thing we can do is educate ourselves on what is in food and what is a good balance.

Balance comes down to the common sense approach to being healthy through a proper diet and exercise. With the recent changes in the Food Guide Pyramid, it now has a lot of variables. These days, people try to become too creative with weight loss and come up with new fad diets. Weight loss is actually very simple: what you put in is what you get out. You have to give the body what it needs to perform. At St. Marks Hospital we have a fully comprehensive educational weight management program with dietitians, counselors, physical trainers, and bariatric surgical treatment as needed.

We offer a multidisciplinary approach with a team of specialists. With education, the best results come from learning from the very beginning how to feed yourself and how to feed your children. We also recommend coming together as a family to learn about healthy lifestyles and balance. If we can help people as children or even newly married adults, then we can start fighting this epidemic. It starts with education, we have to educate everyone. Dawn Armstrong recommends St. Mark’s Hospital’s comprehensive weight management educational program. Visit www.stmarkshospital.com and click on the links to “Specialty Services” and then “Weight Management” or “Center for the Surgical Treatment for Obesity.”

Article Updated:  November 4, 2009