Salon.com > Diabetes

Must-see morning clip: Paula Deen suffers from Type I or Type 2 racism

Fri, 21 Jun 2013 15:19:00 +0000

"The Daily Show" correspondent Jessica Williams reveals that celebrity chef Paula Deen suffers not only from diabetes, but also from Type I or Type II racism. "Type I racism is inherent, it runs in families," said Williams. Type II is adult-onset racism, which you only develop "after years of clogging your brain veins with pure, saturated Dixie nostalgia."

"But don't worry," explains Williams. "These days, racism is rarely fatal depending on who you express it in front of."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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What we talk about when we talk about donuts

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:16:00 +0000

The University of Illinois’ Robert Rushing has waded into the fight over sugar—but he’s not a scientist. Sugar has been much in the news (including here at PS) following a widely publicized study by doctors Robert Lustig and Sanjay Basu, which appeared to conclusively link a sweet tooth to Type-2 diabetes. Rushing, a professor of comparative literature, doesn’t dispute the science, but does wonder about the terms we’re using to discuss it:

Study: Fructose linked to overeating

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:19:00 +0000

This is your brain on sugar, folks.

Scientists at Yale University have used scans of the human brain to show that fructose, a monosaccharide found in everything from fruit to chicken nuggets, can trigger brain function that leads to overeating. According to the study, research subjects given a fructose beverage were less likely to feel "full" than subjects given a glucose beverage.

As reported by the Associated Press, researchers used MRI scans to monitor blood flow in the brains of 20 young, average-weight people before and after they consumed drinks containing fructose or glucose. Brain scans revealed that drinking glucose “turns off or suppresses the activity of areas of the brain that are critical for reward and desire for food,” said Robert Sherwin, an endocrinologist who led the study. Adding that with fructose, “we don’t see those changes. As a result, the desire to eat continues — it isn’t turned off.”

Does America hate its children?

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:36:00 +0000

America’s children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society.

Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns.

We’re not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty keeps rising – even faster than the rate of adult poverty.

And we’re not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes and asthma continue to climb.

If we go over the “fiscal cliff” without a budget deal, several programs focused on the well-being of children will be axed — education, child nutrition, school lunches, children’s health, Head Start. Even if we avoid the cliff, any “grand bargain” to tame the deficit is likely to jeopardize them.

At the same time, states and localities have been slashing preschool and after-school programs, child care, family services, recreation, and mental-health services.

Why?

Conservatives want to blame parents for not doing their job. But this ignores politics.

The NRA, for example, is one of the most powerful lobbies in America – so powerful, in fact, that our leaders rarely have the courage even to utter the words "gun control."

Impotent, diabetic polar bears make the case against soda

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:19:00 +0000

A new video from the Center for Science in the Public Interest is a cute and devastating assault against sugary, bubbly drinks. The organization is also sponsoring a "Pour One Out" contest which will reward videos that show disposing of soda "in a fun, creative way." If this cartoon is any guide, contestants shouldn't err on the side of subtlety:

h/t @stratfordsj

Diabetes in Appalachia: “Just give me a pill”

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:45:00 +0000

PRESTONBURG, Ky. — Here in the heart of Appalachian coal mining country, where black lung disease and TB used to be major killers of men, a new epidemic is sweeping through the dogwood-dappled hollows that’s even deadlier than coal dust. The new threat is diabetes. Ads for diabetes counseling and testing clinics have replaced supermarkets as a major revenue source in local papers. Billboards urging middle-aged people to get tested appear almost everywhere there’s a straight stretch of highway.

Nationwide, diabetes affects 15 percent of all Americans; more than a quarter of all people over 65 are diabetic, while half are borderline. But in Kentucky and across the broad Appalachian region, a third of the population is believed to be diabetic, and health workers here believe that most diabetics don’t know it. Gilbert Friedell, who spent his life as a nationally known cancer specialist before founding a statewide health reform committee in Kentucky, however, rejects the conventional wisdom that diabetes prevention and care is a “health” problem.