Diabetes Forecast: We're Vulnerable Due to Our Lifestyle - Part 7

Diabetes forecast was not difficult to comprehend. Look at how the diabetes statistics multiplied. Globally, there were 30 million diabetics in 1985. That number has exponentially risen to 177 million in 2000. And now the prediction is not any better: 370 million by 2030.

Some of the diabetes forecast we do not totally understand. There are uncertainties there, so the doubting Thomases will assert. More research is needed to fully assess the relation between diet and health. The same is true with the long term effects of childhood diets.

Being able to afford the western cuisine which used to be available only to the well-heeled is certainly a mixed blessing. Why? Because the fat in these diets are singularly blamed for the increasing obesity in the developed world. So now because the diabetes forecast is so dire, they’re scrambling to make cuisines healthier.

Can you believe the food pyramid is wrong? Apparently, they have led us down the garden path. The 1992 food pyramid told us to minimize oils and fats as if they were the devils that all were not. For now we know that some fats are healthy and are essential for health. That left the food pyramid due for a general overhaul.

The old food pyramid also told us to consume six to eleven servings daily of complex carbohydrates including potatoes. But now they’re finding out that a boiled potato raises the blood glucose level more than consuming the same amount of calories from sugar at the table.

Because potatoes are mostly starch, they easily metabolize to glucose. The quick rise in blood glucose stimulates insulin. The high levels of insulin and blood glucose can negatively affect the cardiovascular health, reducing the good cholesterol and raising the triglyceride levels.

Wow! That is quite a revelation. Now I feel guilty for eating all those potatoes that I thought were the most complete food, nutrient-wise, only second to milk. No wonder the diabetes epidemic is on the rise. So what do we do now?

Well, the new food pyramid is an improvement in the sense that it is saying that some fats are worse than others but and here is the big but: it regards both the trans and saturated fats the same way when some are two times more harmful. So what will this do to the diabetes forecast? I leave that to you to decide.