What is so wrong about this is how completely avoidable this condition is (type II diabetes, that is, which is very different from type I). Even the NHS will tell you that you can by and large avoid having to endure this condition by keeping fit and eating well (2). Now why is it so hard for people to achieve this? Well there are many reasons, but a key indicator is sugar consumption. In fact research has shown that excess sugar consumption can lead to a fatty liver, which in turn promotes insulin resistance and eventually type II diabetes (3).
And yet where is the campaign to tax sugar? Why is sugar added to everything, from juices to cereals, bread, pasta, pasta sauces, almost all ready meals, meat products, heck, even table salt has sugar. When even the "health" foods that are sold to us are nutrient poor and have added sugar, it's no wonder people struggle to control their consumption - if you eat empty calories, your body will ask for more food because calories won't necessarily give you nutrients.
And yet we seem content to merely tell people, vaguely, to exercise, control their weight, diet, without recognising the role that added sugar and processed food play in creating this problem. We "treat" the condition with drugs, which don't address the underlying reason a person has the disease in the first place. Drugs which have serious side effects, which, by the way, only seem to get picked up only after millions of people are already taking them and the pharmaceutical company has already made a hansom profit - like thiazolidinedione, which increases your risk of developing bladder cancer (4). Goodness knows what you'd find with concerted looking!
Want to save money for the NHS? Follow my three step plan:
1. Stop eating sugar
2. Stop eating refined flours and overly processed foods.
3. Pat yourself on the back - you've just helped solve a funding crisis in the NHS.
Will governments ever warn people to avoid sugar? Will there be a public awareness campaign to educate people about the known hazardous effects of processed foods? Or will they just tell people to reduce their calories, under the nonsensical modern idea that it's the calories that count (cue TV presenter telling us that a smoothie has more calories than a soda), and keep paying for more drugs? I'm no fortune teller, but I haven't been hearing about the lobbying power of vegetable producers recently.
(2) Preventing type 2 diabetes
(3) Research links sugar consumption, fat production and diabetes
(4) Very Common Diabetes Drug Raises Risk Of Bladder Cancer
