Ballooning Diabetes Rates Highlight the High Cost of Cheap Food

The recent case of an American toddler diagnosed with type 2 diabetes highlights the severity of the problems our modern processed food diet causes. According to Reuters,1 the three-year old girl, who weighed in at 77 pounds, is one of the youngest persons ever diagnosed with this obesity-related disease.

As reported by Reuters:14

“More than 12 percent of the children and adolescents surveyed got over 40 percent of their calories from fast food, which was defined as ‘restaurant fast food/pizza,’ according to the data brief from the NCHS, a unit of the CDC.

‘It is certainly a significant amount and it would be more concerning if someone were not astonished by that number.

It is a sign we have some work to do to help families come up with practical solutions,’ said Dr. Esther Krych, a pediatrician with the Mayo Clinic’s Children’s Center…”

An estimated 56 percent of 8 year-olds also drink soda on a daily basis, and once the teenage years come, some kids drink at least three cans of soda a day.15

Pesticides in Processed Food Also Raise Diabetes Risk

Pesticides and herbicides are another factor that has now started to come to the fore as a major driver of chronic disease — including diabetes. According to a recent analysis25,26,27 of 21 studies, exposure to pesticide — regardless of type — was associated with a 61 percent increased risk for any type of diabetes. Twelve of the studies focused on type 2 diabetes specifically linking pesticide exposure to a 64 percent increased risk of this type of diabetes.

One of the most widely used herbicides in the US is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. In late March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is the research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), reclassified28 glyphosate as a Class 2A “probable human carcinogen,” based on evidence showing it can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lung cancer in humans.

Previous research has also linked glyphosate to an increased diabetes risk, along with a slew of other chronic health problems, including Alzheimer’s disease, which some believe may be yet another form of diabetes — basically “brain diabetes.” Swedish researchers recently confirmed that controlling your blood sugar levels appear to be an important aspect of dementia prevention for type 2 diabetics, who are at an increased risk for neurological degeneration.

The study included nearly 350,000 people, and blood sugar levels were tracked using hemoglobin A1C tests. This newer type of test provides you with an average blood sugar level over the past several months. As reported by MedicineNet.com:29 After taking other variables into account, the study found that those with HbA1c levels of 10.5 percent or higher were 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to people with HbA1c levels of 6.5 percent or less.”

Make Your Family’s Nutrition a Priority 

It’s important to keep offering healthy foods to your child, even if they refuse them or seem to not like them. It can take 10 to 15 food exposures before a child becomes familiar with and likes a certain food, so persistence is important. Food is a part of crucial lifestyle choices first learned at home, so you need to educate yourself about proper nutrition and the dangers of junk food and processed foods in order to change the food culture of your entire family.

To give your child the best start in life and help instill healthy habits that will last a lifetime, you must lead by example.

One of the basic keys to good health and disease prevention is to eat real food… This may be particularly true for diabetes prevention, as processed foods and fast food contain not just one but several components shown to promote metabolic dysfunction and obesity.

By Dr. Mercola

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