Diabetes 2 and Diet- What you need to know

Diabetes 2 and diet – what’s all the fuss about?  That’s a question more and more people are asking, as we’re seeing regular articles and news reports on what doctors are calling an epidemic of Type 2 diabetes in America.

It has exploded in the past few decades, and just continues to get worse all the time.  What’s worse is that Type 2 diabetes used to seen only in older adults, but now it’s hitting young adults and even teenagers.  According to the experts, diabetes will become one of the major killers in the years ahead, right up there with cancer and heart disease, if we don’t’ start making radical lifestyle changes now.

What accounts for this explosion of diabetes?  Quite simply, it’s a result of our lifestyles.  In the past few decades, our eating and exercise habits have changed markedly from what they used to be.  Drive by any school in America, whether it’s an elementary, junior high, or high school, and you’ll see something that you wouldn’t have seen thirty years ago – a huge number of the kids will be overweight, and many of them will be downright obese.  Overweight kids used to be extremely rare, now they’re almost becoming the norm.  The problem gets even worse when you look at people in their twenties and thirties.   Which is all because of the way we eat these days.  Diabetes 2 and diet go hand in hand.

To state it plainly, we’re eating a lot of junk food, and we’re eating way too much food, period.  Our kids and young adults gorge themselves on pizza, burgers, fries, desserts, and colas.  Many schools now have soda pop vending machines in their lunch rooms.  This was unheard of twenty years ago.  We’re all drinking way too much soda, and eating way too much fast food.  On top of that, we don’t eat enough natural foods.  Many Americans go weeks without eating any raw fruits or vegetables besides the garnish on their sandwiches.  And we spend more and more time sitting around in front of our TV, computer, or video games, and not exercising.  That’s what caused this epidemic – diabetes 2 and diet are like hangovers and alcohol.   The good news is that eating right and exercising can not only prevent Type 2 diabetes, but in many cases it can also reverse it.