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By David McCarthy
If you are like me you probably thought diabetes is one of
those things you have or don't have; nothing could be further
from the truth because diabetes is now the biggest threat to
health in the developed world and we are eating ourselves into
it because of poor diet.
First question is how prevalent is diabetes?
Using Australia as an example that has a total population of
around 20 million inhabitants, in the last full year official
figures show 70,000 people were diagnosed with diabetes during
the year. That is equal to one extra person diagnosed every
seven minutes 24/7.
At present 700,000 people are diagnosed with having diabetes
and a conservative figure indicate that for each person
diagnosed there is another that is not diagnosed but does
suffer from diabetes. that is 1.4 million sufferers out of a
total population of 20 million. - More than 5% and growing by
the day. The organization Diabetes Australia forecast that by
the year 2010 the number of sufferers could be close to 10% of
population. This rate of increase is happening throughout the
developed world and is caused by lack of exercise and poor
diet. We could be quite cruel here and say that people are
queuing to shorten their lifespan because diabetes does reduce
your lifespan.
The answer to this epidemic is in the hands of each of us. We
must exercise more and be more conscious of what we eat.
Attention to diet should start from a very young age; in
particular we should concentrate on serving sizes and avoiding
fatty foods. Yes that does include every child's favorite
burger and fries. Once a month does little harm if the
children
are active, once a week causes damage even if they are active.
We all need to be conscious of seven servings of fruit and
vegetables each day in our diet and also the need to back a
good diet with reasonable exercise, like walking. People most
at risk of type 2 diabetes, the most common, are overweight
and
do not exercise. They may have high blood pressure and/or high
cholesterol, if you fit this category ask your doctor to check
for diabetes next time you visit.
I saved the scariest fact for last: The total number of people
in Australia with diabetes or "pre-diabetes" is 3.2 million or
15.1% of the total population. Each of these people will have
a
reduced lifespan.
This article is (c) copyright David McCarthy 2006.
About The Author: David McCarthy writes articles on the
subject
of the effects of food and diet on your health. This article
could be the most important he has written when you read the
scary statistics. His work can be viewed at:
www.recipesmania.com/articles.html
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