Diabetes: A Global Health Crisis

Our Standard American Diet is killing us, and because people around the world want to eat "like Americans", we are facing a health crisis that is on a global scale. In our country alone, more than 30 % of us are overweight or obese. Over 347,000,000 people have diabetes. 2500 Americans die from cardiovascular disease, such as coronary artery disease, heart attacks or stroke each year.

Why are we so unhealthy and overweight?

As fast food sales rise globally we can see the correlation between the introduction of fast food to a country and the rise in obesity and diabetes in that country. This is because fast food is food that tastes great but is severly lacking in nutrients that our bodies require for optimal health. When we eat these food-like substances we're satisfied at first but soon our bodies realize that there wasn't enough nutrition in the food which causes us to become hungry again and the cycle continues.

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Our former health care system worked to prevent disease and promote healing but fast forward to todays health care system and we find that there is much more profit to be made from the pro-business model of medicine rather than the pro-health model. This is driven by the big pharmaceudical companies and hospital corporations. There is much more profit to be made by keeping people sick rather than dealing with the root cause of their disease. Sadly enough, the patient is the one who pays...with his money as well as his health.

Pharmaceutical companies want us to think that they are working to cure diseases when actually all they are doing is "managing symptoms". People are given drugs to make them feel better but to what end?

In many cases the side effects are so severe that the patient actually becomes more ill. Their disease isn't cured; only dealt with on a symptom by symptom basis. Drugs are overprescribed and surgeries are over performed in the name of helping the patients when in reality, some drugs are making patients sicker while profits are increased for these mega-corporations. We no longer have a "health care system"; we have a "disease management system". Where is the incentive to change back to a pro-health model when so much money can be made simply by "managing disease"? I submit to you that there is no incentive.

We must take our health back into our own hands. When are we going to realize that what we put into our body is ultimately what we become? If we eat a Standard American Diet containing food-like substances, which contain calories but no real nutrition our bodies will eventually rebel, either by making us hungrier, which causes us to overeat and/or by making us sick.

We must wake up to what is happening with our food here and around the world.