Thirty percent of Americans could be diabetic by 2050

Saturday, October 23, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: diabetes, epidemic, health news

(NaturalNews) The overall health of the American public continues to decline because of bad diets and lack of exercise. And if major changes do not occur very soon, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the number of people with diabetes could triple by the year 2050.

"We project that, over the next 40 years, the prevalence of total diabetes (diagnosed and undiagnosed) in the United States will increase from its current level of about one in ten adults to between one in five and one in three adults in 2050," explain James Boyle and his colleagues from the CDC in a recent report. "Successful programs to improve lifestyle choices on healthy eating and physical activity must be made more widely available because the stakes are too high and the personal toll too devastating to fail."

According to the CDC, 24 million Americans currently have diabetes, and most of these cases are type-2, which is the developed kind associated with bad diet and lack of exercise. In 2007, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., and it is currently the number one cause of blindness in adults under 75. Diabetes is also the number one cause of kidney failure, as well as leg and foot amputations not associated with an injury.

"Diabetes, costing the United States more than $174 billion per year in 2007, is expected to take an increasingly large financial toll in subsequent years," wrote the team.

People can learn to exercise more, but avoiding bad food in the U.S. is difficult. Most of the products people buy are loaded with unhealthy trans-fats like hydrogenated vegetable oils, and many FDA-approved additives cause severe health problems. Government policies perpetuate sickness as well by subsidizing unhealthy cash crops that end up being used in many food items.

Many of the major crops grown in the U.S. -- including soy, corn, cotton, and canola -- are genetically modified (GM) as well, which is known to cause severe health problems. And because of government catering to special interests, GM foods do not even have to be labeled.

Instead of wholesome, clean foods, the majority of what sits on grocery store shelves has been so tampered with that it hardly constitutes legitimate nutrition. And health authorities continue to endorse these products as safe. So while changing diet and getting more exercise is important, ending the reign of toxic terror that currently presides over the American public is right up there with it.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69L21Y...