The Future of Our Food and The Diabetes Explosion in America

(RING!)
Aaron:"Hey Justin,hey it's Aaron. I can't come out tonight. I'm gonna see the doctor--No, it's called 'diabetes', real bad...See ya!"

I got a disease that's tough to beat
It REALLY sucks, it's not a treat
I got it from eating too much sugar
God dammit, I'm such a damn booger.

DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES

Go to the hospital, get insulin,
Can't borrow blood from my kin,
My medication, what the doctor ordered
So sour it makes my eyes water.

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES

Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey

Diabetes makes me cry, my eyes get wetter
I wipe my tears on my sweater
Some day soon I'll find a cure
Till then I can only use EQUAL sugar

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH

DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES
DI-A-BET-ES

Insulin in the morning time
Insulin without sunshine
Oh my God baby can't you see
All this insulin is driving me CRAZY
All this insulin is driving me CRAZY

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyy

Insulin drives me CRAZY

Song parody by Aaron Carter song to the tune of "I Want Candy"


I have some food for thought for all of you.  I just watched "The Future of Food" a documentary filmed in 2004 about the genetic alteration of our food it was produced by Deborah Koons Garcia.    WOW scary stuff with some very serious implications.  As I watched it I realized wow we as Americans have become government sanctioned guinea pigs.  You can watch it too at http://www.thefutureoffoods.com.  I am by far a "Liberal" I am actually a "Moderate" and I am definitely a "Capitalist" but that being said I have a new fear about the "Corporate Greed" and avarice this film exposes as well as the complicity our government has displayed.

Some of you may know that I am a Type 2 Diabetic.  I will describe what that means to me personally later but I want to layout some things that I find interesting and while there may or may not be direct corollary evidence I'll let you decide.  

The fact that we as Americans are more and more obese is indisputable.  Now it would be to easy to claim the obesity problem is because our food supply has been tainted but I believe that is a key ingredient in the recipe that has lead us here.  Another key ingredient is our sedentary life style.

1. Our food is being genetically altered by huge agricorps whose sole purpose is to make money and control our food supplies.  They use the power of our courts against us and have patented living things.  They have literally patented plants and tress.  Of course our representatives in Congress and our Courts have allowed it.


2. Our food is being irradiated.  They irradiate our food to kill of the bacteria and therefore extend the shelf life for storage and saleability.


3. Our livestock is being fed steroids, genetically altered and irradiated!  Gee I wonder why we are obese and our children are obese and 10 year old girls are developing breast and having periods and 10 year old boys are developing breasts and entering puberty early!  Make sure you drink you milk junior so you can grow up big and strong like mommy and daddy, oh and skip a few years in your childhood too!   Is it me or is there an awful lot of gynecomastia (man boobs) prevelant these days.

When I was a child I played outside constantly.  I played and stayed outside.  We didn’t have PCs, Playstaion, X-Box, or Nintendo DS.  We didn’t have Facebook, Myspace and the only social network we had was the one that we developed by real life interactions with real people.  I walked or rode a bike most places but mostly walked.  I would cut grass and shovel snow to make money and I worked several small jobs.  These activities helped me stay a healthy weight.  Our children aren't outside playing as much.  they are more sheltered physically but not sheltered virtually which leads to other problems for other blog posts.

I guess what I am getting at is it is not just their lack of physical activity they are being affected by the foods they eat.  I am not picking on fast foods either though that is a, pardon the pun large problem too.  It is the food that we bring home from the supermarket that's the problem.  Maybe the first clue to the source of the this problem is the prefix super in market perhaps if we had a community market with naturally grown foods that were locally produced we may have a fighting chance.  If you are fortunate enough to have access to a real wholesome community market then God bless you and make sure you avail yourself of it.

I travel to Greece quite regularly and I am always amazed by how tasty and fresh everything is.  Know why?  Because it is fresh and not refrigerated or adulterated to make it last longer.  It is fresh because it came from a local source be it the farm, the ranch or the sea!

I have always been healthy, thank God!  At the ripe old age of 35 I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.  For the first ten years my condition was easily controlled by oral medications.  Then the oral medications started to falter and I had to start taking insulin.  The funny thing about my diabetes and I suspect other long term diabetics experience this as well is I initially lost weight and felt great.  Then as I started the various medications I gained weight and the biggest weight gain came with the insulin.  Over the years I have gone from completely pedantic about my condition to a nonchalant attitude of whatever happens happens.  Obviously the later is not a very healthy way to treat the disease but it is a very frustrating disease. 

Imagine watching everything you eat, all the time and still having you blood sugar levels exceed the norm.  The norm is 70 to 120 milligrams per deciliter.  The process of determining your blood sugar level is a pain literally.  It entails pricking yours finger and putting the blood unto a test strip and getting a reading.  Now, admittedly the process only takes a few seconds and I am grateful for the technology because the technology helps to keep the diabetic acutely aware of their blood sugar levels. 

Diabetes is an insidious disease that quietly attacks your body piece by piece.  For those who can’t control it, it can kill you quickly or slowly.  Diabetic or insulin shock can cause the quick kill when your blood sugar drops to low because the diabetic has taken his or her insulin and not eaten enough food to cover the dosage.  The other quick kill is not enough insulin and very high blood sugar that causes the diabetic to go into to diabetic coma, then death.  The slow death is loss of limbs due to amputations.  Blindness and organ failure and are caused by high blood sugar levels damaging the nervous system and the circulatory system.

So it is imperative that the diabetic remain ever vigilant and both proactive and reactive.  I personally am testing anywhere from four to six times a day and adjusting insulin levels.  You, as a diabetic are a walking chemistry experiment that needs constant monitoring and adjustment.

Ok so where are we as a society in all of this?  We are in trouble that’s where we are.  Our foods are processed our children and we are getting fatter and our health is on the decline.  America as a country enjoys one of the highest life expectancies in the world but the erosion has begun.  The Roman’s poisoned themselves with lead and we are using food.

Here is the interesting parallel, the alteration and adulteration of our food supply is not unlike diabetes.  The diabetic who is unaware of his disease and doesn’t treat it is whittled away until he suffers a decreased life span.  The adulteration of food is causing the silent change in our society causing us to die off with a decreased life span. 
It is not too late to become aware and reverse the affects as long as we choose to be proactive and take back our food supply.  Spread the word we have seen the enemy and the enemy is us.