Hypoglycemia, sometimes called an insulin reaction, can happen even during those times when you’re doing all you can to manage your diabetes. So, although many times you can’t prevent it from happening, hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) can be treated before it gets worse. For this reason, it’s important to know what hypoglycemia is, what symptoms of hypoglycemia are, and how to treat hypoglycemia.

What are the symptoms of hypoglycemia?

The symptoms of hypoglycemia include:

• Shakiness
• Dizziness
• Sweating
• Hunger
• Headache
• Pale skin color
• Sudden moodiness or behavior changes, such as crying for no apparent reason
• Clumsy or jerky movements
• Seizure
• Difficulty paying attention, or confusion
• Tingling sensations around the mouth

How do you know when your blood glucose is low?

Part of managing diabetes is checking blood glucose often. Ask your doctor how often you should check and what your blood glucose levels should be. The results from checking your blood will tell you when your blood glucose is low and that you need to treat it.

You should check your blood glucose level according to the schedule you work out with your doctor. More importantly though, you should check your blood whenever you feel low blood glucose coming on. After you check and see that your blood glucose level is low, you should treat hypoglycemia quickly.

If you feel a reaction coming on but cannot check, it’s best to treat the reaction rather than wait. Remember this simple rule: When in doubt, treat.

How do you treat hypoglycemia?

The quickest way to raise your blood glucose and treat hypoglycemia is with some form of sugar, such as 3 glucose tablets (you can buy these at the drug store), 1/2 cup of fruit juice, or 5-6 pieces of hard candy.

Ask your health care professional or dietitian to list foods that you can use to treat low blood glucose.  And then, be sure you always have at least one type of sugar with you.

Once you’ve checked your blood glucose and treated your hypoglycemia, wait 15 or 20 minutes and check your blood again.  If your blood glucose is still low and your symptoms of hypoglycemia don’t go away, repeat the treatment.  After you feel better, be sure to eat your regular meals and snacks as planned to keep your blood glucose level up.

It’s important to treat hypoglycemia quickly because hypoglycemia can get worse and you could pass out.  If you pass out, you will need IMMEDIATE treatment, such as an injection of glucagon or emergency treatment in a hospital.

Glucagon raises blood glucose. It is injected like insulin. Ask your doctor to prescribe it for you and tell you how to use it.  You need to tell people around you (such as family members and co-workers) how and when to inject glucagon should you ever need it.

If glucagon is not available, you should be taken to the nearest emergency room for treatment for low blood glucose.  If you need immediate medical assistance or an ambulance, someone should call the emergency number in your area (such as 911) for help.  It’s a good idea to post emergency numbers by the telephone.

If you pass out from hypoglycemia, people should:

• NOT inject insulin.
• NOT give you food or fluids.
• NOT put their hands in your mouth.
• Inject glucagon.
• Call for emergency help.

How do you prevent low blood glucose?

Good diabetes control is the best way we know to prevent hypoglycemia.  The trick is to learn to recognize the symptoms of hypoglycemia.  This way, you can treat hypoglycemia before it gets worse.

Hypoglycemia Unawareness

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Some people have no symptoms of hypoglycemia.  They may lose consciousness without ever knowing their blood glucose levels were dropping.  This problem is called hypoglycemia unawareness.

Hypoglycemia unawareness tends to happen to people who have had diabetes for many years.  Hypoglycemia unawareness does not happen to everyone.  It is more likely in people who have neuropathy (nerve damage), people on tight glucose control, and people who take certain heart or high blood pressure medicines.

As the years go by, many people continue to have symptoms of hypoglycemia, but the symptoms change.  In this case, someone may not recognize a reaction because it feels different.

These changes are good reason to check your blood glucose often, and to alert your friends and family to your symptoms of hypoglycemia.  Treat low or dropping sugar levels even if you feel fine.  And tell your team if your blood glucose ever drops below 50 mg/dl without any symptoms.

Resources

Watch the Association’s glucagon training video.

Glucagon Training Video

Source: American Diabetes Association (ADA)

Kids, Its Not Your Fault You Have Diabetes

The book, ‘Fast Food Nation’ by Eric Schlosser was first published in 2001. I read passages of this book from time to time to help me stay focused on how America has been Ambushed by our food industry.

 There is a direct relationship between fast (processed) foods, obesity and Diabetes. Our food industry has evolved into a corporate entity that is driven by profits only. This industry has trained a whole country that what they sell you is GOOD! This is a lie.  Why has diabetes become a epidemic during tha past 35 years?  Many of you reading this blog are under 20 years of age.  You were born into a society that has been misinformed about nutrition for many years before you were born. In other words, your parents did not have a clue about the foods they were feeding you.  I’m a parent. I was clueless also.  The Colonial at Kentucky and Ronald McDonald told us “Don’t worry, we have what’s good for your children”,  and its cheap! Everybody fell for the fast food craze. You kids never had a chance.

I quote from the book ‘Fast Food Nation’, “The McDonald’s Corporation has become a powerful symbol of America’s service economy, which is now responsible for 90 percent of the country’s new jobs.  In 1968, McDonald’s operated about one thousand restaurants. Today (2001) it has about twenty-eight thousand restaurants worldwide and opens almost two thousand new ones each year. An estimated one out of every eight workers in the United States at one point has been employed by McDonald’s.  The company annually hires about one million people, more than any other American organization, public or private. McDonald’s is the nation’s largest purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes — and the second largest purchaser of chicken.  The McDonald’s Corporation is the largest owner of retail property in the world.  Indeed, the company earns the majority of its profits not from selling food but from collecting rent.  McDonald’s spends more money on advertising and marketing than any other brand.  As a result it has replaced Coca-Cola as the world’s most famous brand.  McDonald’s operates more playgrounds than any other private entity in the United States.  It is one of the nation’s largest distributors of toys.  A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald.  The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus.  The impact of McDonald’s on the way we live today is hard to overstate.  The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian Cross”.

So kids you must understand, you did personally go out your way to get type 2 Diabetes.  We parents were AMBUSHED by the fast food industry in America.  Restaurant chains like McDonald’s, Wendys, Jack In The Box, Kentucky Fried, Burger King, and many others have changed the way Americans eat.  We have embraced them wholeheartedly.  Now we know a diet that includes a weekly regimen of fast foods is very dangerous.  Your school districts are cutting expenses by dumping sports programs and P.E. classes.  If you wonder why so many of you are becoming Diabetic and pumping Insulin, its because we parents have been unaware of the dangers of fast foods for the past 35 to 40 years. Way before you were born many of your parents, uncles, aunts and even grandparents developed Diabetes.  We now are well aware that with good nutrition and excercise type 2 Diabetes can not only be avoided but in many cases, reversed.

If you have Diabetes, please don’t feel guilty.  You really didn’t do anything wrong.  However, you must take this disease seriously. Take your medication. Take your insulin. Check your blood sugar often.  Its not normal for a kid to have to go through these changes everyday, but the consequences of not doing these things can be very serious indeed. Lay off the sodas and fast foods. Exercise is like Kryptonite to type 2 Diabetes. If your are not Diabetic, do your best to avoid this desease. Food companies and fast food restaurants are not your friends. You Have to look out for yourself.

FoodSpook 

Diabetes Can be Reversible-Video by Sarah Dobbyn

Source: Sarah Dobbyn, Reprinted from YouTube

Insulin Pump Info for Teens-Video

Source: Josephine Andrion, Reprinted from YouTube

This was initiated by Josephine Andrion for her school project. We thought it would be a good oppotunity to accept this animated education piece about insulin education for 10 year olds.

What is Diabetes?-Video by Dr. Malpani

Source: drmalpani.com/health-videos/

‘Food Politics’

Food companies will make and market any product that sells, regardless of its nutritional value or its effect on health. In this regard, food companies hardly differ from cigarette companies. They lobby Congress to eliminate regulations perceived as unfavorable; they press federal regulatory agencies not to enforce such regulations; and when they don’t like regulatory decisions, they file lawsuits.
 
Like cigarette companies, food companies co-opt food and nutrition experts by supporting professional organizations and research, and they expand sales by marketing directly to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries–whether or not the products are likely to improve people’s diets”.  Quote from Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics”,  University of California Press, 2002.

If you want to understand how politicians, lobbyists and food companies have totally corrupted our food chain in America, you should read Marion Nestle’s books. At the time “Food Politics” was printed, the author was the chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University. When I finished reading this book six years ago, I was truly blown away.

  Everything I suspected about  fast food restaurants in my neighborhood, raising rates of obesity, type 2 Diabetes appearing in children under the age of five and our government not protecting it’s citizens was revealed to be TRUE. Our government actually helps food companies to deceive to us. Even reading a food label in the grocery is no guarantee that that you are being told the truth.  I always laugh when I pick up a box of cereal and find “Dehydrated Cane Juice” listed as the second ingredient on the label.  Folks this means that the 2nd highest  percentage  of ingredients in this box of cereal is plain old SUGAR!

Your government allows this corporate game playing with our foods. In the mean time, people are becoming diseased and are dying and don’t know why. Tell me why are two and three year old children developing type 2 Diabetes during the past 30 years at a rate that this country has never seen before? Why have heart attacks for women between the the ages of 34 and45 increased by 30% over the last 30 years. Look at our food industry in America. It is not your friend.

FoodSpook

Remembering “Mad Cow Disease”

I saw a very interesting documentary on the DOC channel the other night. The disease in cattle called “Mad Cow Disease” began in England. this disease almost doomed the beef industry throughout the entire globe. So, where did this come from? According to this  TV documentary, the cattle industry in England decided to cut costs and improve their profit margins by supplementing their cattle feed with ground up carcasses of sheep and cows. Before that time, their cattle where strictly vegeterian, eating local grasses, grain and hay. What happened when the cattlemen started making cannibals out of these innocent animals? The cows became sick.

For a number of years a disease known as ”scrapes” has been part of raising sheep. When a sheep contracts this disease it begins to scrape its body uncontrollably upon the nearest post or tree or whatever. Eventually it starts to lose its balance and control of its body. Then it dies.  When cattle started being fed the bodies of dead sheep that had died of this disease, they started to show the same symtoms of scraping and loss of balance of the diseased sheep they were being fed.

The British government and meat industry had not put the pieces together yet. People had to DIE first.  Two or three people came down with neurological brain cell damage and destruction that had not been seen before in humans.  Scientists eventually discovered the disease they where seeing in human brain tissue resembled a brain disease they had known about in sheep for years. The question is, how did this disease get into humans?  In the meantime, cattle were being euthanized all over the world, wherever “Mad Cow” was suspected. I’m talking about hundreds of thousands of heads of beef being killed or embargoed under the suspicion of being deadly. Economies were threatened in Europe, Canada, United States and even Japan. Something had to be done.

Scientists across the continents finally figured it out. Diseases can jump from one species to another. They found that cattle were being fed diseased sheep. Cattle were getting sick. No Problem! What became a problem was that people were now getting sick because were were eating sick cattle. When people start getting sick because of one industry it becomes worldwide news. When you get this news, its not to inform you about, lets say buying beef. The only reason you found out about “Mad Cow Disease” is because the story made money for print the  press, TV, and all types of media outlets.

My blogsite is about Diabetes.  It is also about our health.  There are a lot of circumstances in life that are not in our control. For example, you live in a dictatorship. You were born in a rural village on the continent of Africa where you now have to buy your drinking water from a foriegn corporation. You live in the lower socio-economic level in America.  The basic fact is no matter where welive on this planet, we must look after ourselves. Our governments are bought by multi-national comglomerates. The only reason why scientists discovered the roots of “Mad Cow Disease” was because it threatned the beef industry throughout the world. Economies could fail.

The Diabetes epidemic in America is not like “Mad Cow Disease”.  It is not threatening anyone’s economy at the present. Diabetes effects Black People twice the times of White People.  As more and more countries adopt the American diet of convenient fast processed food outlets, the rates of Diabetes will inevitablly rise in those countries. This fact will not matter to food corporations. They don’t care. How can a company care about you when they are selling you beef that has been fattend on the carcasses of dead sheep and other beef? Did you know that as much as 5% of your hot dogs, sausage and salami is sawdust?  Check the food labels and look for celloulous fillers. It will be somewhere in the small print of the ingredients lable.  In some ways we are like the cattle, being fed who knows what and becoming sick, even dying. 

Nutrition is life. What we eat can mean life or the alternative. The food industry in America is corrupt and dangerous for the we, the consumers. We must get back to our “mother-wood since” as my dad used to say to me. I’m afraid of ground beef. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am. We must be more investigative in what we eat and drink. Watch out for all the disguised names of SUGAR.  There is a reason for the explosion of obesity in this country in the past 30 years. Thus, there is a reason for this huge epidemic of Diabetes in America today.  

FoodSpook

My Own Advice

Did you exercise for at least 15 minutes today? Good for you! I didn’t. Got on my computer this morning and have been here for almost 8 hours. No excuses. That’s how time gets by you. Tomorrow I will get back to what I Preach.  Good nutrition and exercise can prevent type 2 Diabetes. There is no If’s and But’s. Just DO it.

FoodSpook

‘Lil FoodSpook in the 1950′s

Many of you reading this blog were not on this planet in the 1950′s. In other words, the stork hadn’t brought you yet.

Well the stork brought me to San Francisco in April 1948. What a joyous occasion that must have been. My parents had arrived here from Texas and Louisiana to build Liberty Ships in the local shipyards. They bought their first house for $8500 in 1950. Eighteen months later we had a TV with three channels that went off at midnight. My father was also a preacher besides working at least two or three jobs during the week. Mother was a house mom except during the summer months when she worked at Del Monte Canneries canning fruit from the luscious San Joaquin Valley.

By 1956 I was in the third grade. Elvis had recorded “HoundDog” and was becoming a major star. All of the little boys in the neighborhood were trying to twerle their hair to be kool like the Everley Bros. Their first big hit was “Peggy Sue” followed by “Bye Bye Love”.  Of course I did’nt realize at the time that my hair was of the Negroid persuasion and could never curl down over my forehead like the Everley Brothers. But, I tried. By the way, ‘Lil FoodSpook is yours truly, the author, T. Jeffery. That name is retroactive to my youth as a precursor to what I would become in my later years, FoodSpook.

I want to warn people about FOOD. There is a connection between what we eat and contracting Type 2 Diabetes. Their are concrete reasons why our young children are in jeopardy of becoming Diabetic. Foodspook grew up a lttle colored boy in San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond, CA.  Life moved at a slower pace than now. My family became Black in the mid 1960′s. We became African Americans in the 1970′s. This is what we considered as “progress”. We was ‘moving on up’! However, some things didn’t change. In the 1960′s there were massive nationwide protests against the Viet Nam War. My college military deferment card disappeared in my 2nd year at San Jose State so, I got drafted. But that’s another story. The 1950′s was a time when Americans trusted our government. Actually we trusted almost everybody of authority in this country. It was inconceivable that our government (FDA) would allow restaurants to exist to sell you garbage! Well, that’s what has happened. You have NO ONE looking out for your welfare when comes to your choices of food being sold in your neighborhood.

I have become FoodSpook in my middle age because I am outraged that this epedimic of Diabetes is consumming millions of Americans and the silence from from our national media is deafening. Type 2 Diabetes is preventable and we have people that are becoming Diabetic without knowing what they did in life to bring on this condition. Diabetes is a killer if you do not understand its nature. It can destroy your body by increments over a period of time. I have become FoodSpook to try to do something in my own way to scream to people, just because you may be Black or another minority without access to great medical information, you must become aware that if you are overweight you are at risk of becoming Diabetic. You must know that the consumption of sugar by itself is not the cause of Diabetes. Ingestion of too much sugar for your body to process to energy can cause obesity. When don’t exercise that much and you like to eat fast (processed foods) that contain a high percentage of disguised carbohydrates (sugars), eventually your pancreas will not be able to produce enough insulin to break down the SUGARS in your blood stream for energy and necessary nutrients. Thus, you become a Diabetic.

When “lil FoodSpook was a young boy, it was NORMAL for most of the senior ladies in my father’s church would eventually have a lower leg or foot amputated. Growing up as a  child this was NORMAL and expected.  It was expected that our older men would go blind or wind up on a dialysis machine to stay alive because Diabetes was ravishing their bodies.  Today, children as young as 2 years old are  becoming type 2 Diabetics. Basically that means their Pancreas is not producing enough Insulin to break doiw the sugars they are ingesting in so many forms of our manufactured foods, (processed foods). They results in 25 to 30 years from now for our children will be CATASTROPHIC.

What ‘Lil FoodSpook saw in the 1950′s was the natural assumption the life is good and protecting. In reality life as we knew it, ( that is us coloured folks) was destroying us. BBQ, Ham Hocks and Pigs Feet and not to mention the Heavenly homemade Flakey Biscuits was clogging up our arteries as my parents would sit around after dinner and talk about how Pres. Roosevelt has helped us all. We were dying then and still are today. FoodSpook is hollering WAKE UP! Type 2 diabetes is so unnessesary.

FoodSpook

Preserving Eyesight for the Diabetic

Older treatment is More Effective than New Treatment in Preserving Sight for Some Patients with Diabetes

Brief Description:

A promising new drug therapy used to treat abnormal swelling in the eye proved less effective than traditional laser treatments in a National Eye Institute study.

Transcript:

Akinso: A promising new drug therapy used to treat abnormal swelling in the eye proved less effective than traditional laser treatments in a National Eye Institute study.

Chew: This study compared the standard treatment with laser, with a more experimental treatment which is the injection of steroids.

Akinso: Dr. Emily Chew is the Deputy Director of Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the NEI.

Chew: The steroid could cause an increase in pressure causing glaucoma, it can also increase the risk of cataract.

Akinso: The study compared the effectiveness between treatments on a condition known as diabetic macular edema. Diabetic macular edema occurs when the center part of the eye’s retina, called the macula, swells — possibly leading to blindness. Dr. Chew says between 40 and 45 percent of the 18 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes have vision problems such as diabetic macular edema.

Chew: Diabetic macular edema occur in patients with diabetes. The macular refers to the center part of the eye that gives you best vision. And the retina is perfectly flat when it’s in good health, but with diabetes the blood vessels leak out fluid and it makes the retina very swollen. So macular edema is one of the major causes of blurred vision in diabetics.

Akinso: Ophthalmologists traditionally use lasers to reduce the swelling in areas of the macula. However, recently, early reports of success in treating diabetic macular edema with injections of a corticosteroid called triamcinolone led to the rise in popularity of this alternative therapy. Dr. Chew talks about how the two treatment options compared.

Chew: The study showed that at one year the vision wasn’t actually different between the steroid people and the laser treated folks. At two years, people who had laser actually did better. So the standard treatment was actually better than the steroids treatment.

Akinso: Researchers found that, while not as effective as the laser treatment, corticosteroid treatment did provide some benefit. Dr. Chew says the findings raise the possibility that combining laser with the corticosteroids therapy might produce greater benefit. This is Wally Akinso at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Skin Care and Diabetes by Maricon Williams

Diabetics are prone to some skin complications. In fact, diabetics have a tendency towards dehydration that causes dry skin. It can also lead to chapped, cracked skin or worst to amputation. That’s too much for a skin worry, isn’t it?

Prevention, however, is the key to avoid serious complications regarding skin problems. We have to prevent them from to stay sound and healthy. In order to do so, here are the guidelines that diabetics must follow in order to be free from these complications.

There are skin products that are made especially for diabetics. Nonetheless, the content and effectiveness of these skin products does not vary. Thus, just anybody can acquire it without spending extra sum.

A word of caution though, has to be faithfully exercised: use only reliable products and be keen to possible injuries. Before you apply a certain skin product, consult first a healthcare expert. There are products that can peel or burn your skin. These products contain steroids that can decrease your sensitivity. Moreover, the injuries may not be detected right away.

Examples of these skin products are some analgesic creams and anti-itch creams. To a non-diabetic, prolonged steroid exposure can lead to heart and blood circulation problems. To a diabetic person it is more dangerous because prolonged exposure can be fatal. Nevertheless, the use may not have adverse effects on other diabetics. However, to other diabetics, they cannot use even once.

Aside from skin care products, diabetics must also avoid lotions and moisturizers. These products reduce the amount of oxygen that reaches the skin. This situation can result to infection. Poor blood circulation and low supply of oxygen can lead to a condition called gangrene. If not remedied in due time, this may entail amputation. Thus, diabetics should avoid putting moisturizers in the enclosed spaces of the body like the skin folds, armpits, orifice, genitals and groin areas.

Diabetics must also avoid sharp objects such as blades, nail clippers, knives and the likes to remove calluses, corns and warts. When doing manicure or pedicure, be sure that the tools are sterilized or soaked in alcohol.

To free yourself from any qualms about using skin products or not, the best way is to consult a healthcare expert or a physician for that matter. It is better to prevent the possible dangerous condition before it gets worst and unmanageable. This is called preventative care and it works all the time!

About the author:
Please visit Home Medical Supply site at http://www.onlinehomemedicalsupply.com for comments and inquiries regarding this article.

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Diabetic? Watch Your Stress Level by Richard Bean

Deep Breathing:  Two to three deep breaths are taken for immediate release of tension. For deeper relaxation, seven to eight breaths are recommended. This is deep, abdominal breathing, and light-headedafeedbackness can occur if you get up too quickly afterward.

Progressive Relaxation:  This is a process of contracting and relaxing the muscles, beginning with the toes and moving up to the face. You learn to sense how the muscles feel by contracting the muscles for 10 to 20 seconds and sensing how they feel in that contracted state, then relaxing these same muscles and sensing how they feel in the relaxed state.

Autogenic Therapy:  The same muscle sequence can be followed as in progressive relaxation. In this approach, you imagine that your muscles are very heavy (relaxed). When the muscles surrounding the blood vessels are relaxed, these muscles become warmer due to unobstructed blood flow. This is a physical, or mechanical, response rather than an imagined response.

Meditation:  Traditionally, the focus here is a sight or sound. For example, a mantra or other specific sound might be repeated over and over again. Dr. Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard, is a leader in the stress-management field. Dr. Benson has people focus on the repetition of the word one as part of his program involving the “relaxation response.” Other people use prayer or a scripture. Still others concentrate on a picture or on a spot on the wall. As relaxation ability improves, the relaxation response can occur within a shorter period of time.

Imagery:  This technique takes your focus away from your problems. The imaging can take the shape of people, places, or things, or it can involve focusing on bright to calm colors (and back) or bright to calm music (and back). Visualizing an accomplishment, such as climbing a mountain with supportive aid as needed (from family, friends, or spiritual strength), gives an impression of accomplishing a goal and the peace and good feelings that accompany it.

Biofeedback: is a technique in which you learn to use information about changes in your body. Relaxation training may be enhanced through biofeedback, such as might be obtained by measuring skin resistance, muscle energy output, or temperature of the hands or feet. The initial use of biofeedback is just to let you know how you are responding to changes in thought or position. Later on, it aids in training you to become more relaxed by letting you know which types of activities represent your “getting out of the way of yourself” so that your body automatically relaxes. The key is not to try. (Remember what happens when you try to go to sleep? You are more wide awake. Similarly, if you try to relax, you will become more tense.) Instead, allow yourself to become relaxed by focusing your thoughts away from the hectic problems of the day.

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Diabetes – Ambushed In America

My Fellow Americans,

Would you believe we have been Ambushed? How so? By our food industry. Period. When I say food industry I’m talking about producers and sellers. For example, why do we now have the choice of whole grain cereal at the grocery store in the 2000′s when food companies like General Mills for example, could have been making whole grain cereals 40 years ago? The 1960′s was the beginning of the “healthy living” revolution in America, especially on the west coast. There was the free speech demonstrations/riots at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State, and thousands of self annointed hippies

staging “love ins” and “be ins” in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The spectacular forests and meadows of Northern California was the home of many communes of free living people. Young soldiers were being sacrificed in the Viet Nam war. I was at the Senator John Kennedy’s campaign speech at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theater when he said those famous words “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. The 1960′s spawned the Peace Corp. The 60′s was a time of a fundamental change of attitude and trust of many Americans toward our government and our corporations. I’ll give you the example of the Black Panthers headquartered in Oakland, CA. Like their counterparts throughout the country, they were protesting the “status quo”. With all of this awareness happening and our new found enlightenment, we were being Ambushed!

Think about it. With all of the medical breakthroughs and discoveries during the past 40 years, why is obesity the number one health problem in the whole country? Why are our two year olds developing Type 2 Diabetes? Because during the mid 1950′s and 60′s we were being Ambushed by the fast food army. Two of the generals in this army were the Colonel and Ronald MacDonald. They slipped into our lives and changed the eating habits of a entire nation. The Ambush was not typical. It probably one of the slowest Ambushes in history. Ray Croc, the founder of MacDonalds, opened his first burger outlet in the early 1950′s after the Korean War. America was on the rebound after two wars. Real estate was being developed cookie cutter style, design one box house and sell it over and over. The beginning of tract homes. The future was wide open and for the taking. There were many great sci-fi movies produced during this time. Two of my favorites were “War of the Worlds” starring the great Gene Barry and “The Day the Earth Stood Still” starring the magnificent Micheal Rennie and his sidekick, Mort the Robot. In 1957 Russia put a satellite into outer space. America was Shocked. The new president, John F. Kennedy  promised the country that we would have a man on the moon within the next 10 years. We did. First man walked on the moon in 1969, the same year my first daughter was born. So, let me tell you how we’ve Ambushed.

In the early 1960′s there was a transition in the Hollywood cartoon industry. Remember “Popeye” and “Bugs Bunny”? Please don’t forget “Donald Duck” and “Pluto”. I was here when TV’s first went on sale. My love affair with TV and movies has been a lifetime. In the 1950′s when there was only 3 national TV stations, they went off at midnight and you would see a bulls-eye sign-off on the screen. I was 7 years old and highly disappointed when the programming stopped. I would wait to my parents went to sleep and sneak back into the living room to watch TV.  One late Saturday night I viewed the original “Godzilla” the wonderful Japanese destruction film. My father was a preacher and out of town that weekend. About 5:00 AM that Sunday morning a gigantic beak broke through my bedroom window. Godzilla had flown to Oakland, CA and was trying to EAT me! My screams brought my mother to my bedroom and she clutched my face against her breasts. It took me 40 minutes to finally calm down. The Ambush is coming.

I will often refer to TV programs because it or not, they actually  chronicle and sometimes predict real life. Can you recall the cartoon series “The Jetsons”. This series of cartoons portrayed a middle class family of the future. Everything was a their fingertips with the touch of a button. This cartoon was a reflection of America’s power and lust for modern things. Thus, the Ambush! When MacDonalds started showing up in minority neighborhoods we thought that Martin Luther King’s vision for Black People and all People in America might be happening. After President John Kennedy came President Lyndon B. Johnson, one of the most Honourable Presidents to serve the country since Uncle Abe. President Johnson also had a dream about a single America not being divided by race, wealth and contacts. His “Great Society” programs were magnificent and some of the finest legislation from our Executive Branch since Mr. Roosevelt. The Ambush is coming.

As I mentioned before, after WWII and the Korean War, America was giddy with gusto and energy. Let’s do it was the motto. A very subtle changed during the great changes of the 1960′s. Women came out. I’m talking about sexually, professionally and capable of thriving in any working environment. It was OK to have children and send them to day care. The country had changed! It s okfor women to work. I remember my wife and I both marveled fact that after a long days work, we didn’t have to worry about cooking on many days. At 6:30 in the evening we just went to Kentucky Fried and let Colonel take care of us. We new that we are part of the new wave of young  progressives. When they started putting MacDonalds franchises in minority neighborhoods we said thank God! Somebody likes us. MacDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried, Wendys and so many more franchises showing up in minority neighborhoods we thought Oh Lord, our time has come. Business to where WE live. Thus, the Ambush began. Withboth parents working our butts off to achieve the American dream, we thank God for the Golden Arches where we could take our children to not only be be fed cheaply but also entertained. Wow! One stop shopping! The 1960′s was a time of change and a new awareness about life in general. Food corporations were far ahead of us in planning strategy and still are.

I quote from Marion Nestle, world renowned Professor of Nutrition and activist,”Food companies will make and market any product thar sells, regardless of its nutritional value or its effect on health. In this regard, food companies hardly differ from cigarette companies. They lobby Congress to eliminate regulations percieved as unfavorable; they press federal regulatory agencies not to enforce such regulations: and when they don’t like regulatory decisions, they file lawsuits” Understand, food companies demand the right to sell you crap! Your government not only condones this attitude toward feeding Americans garbage, the government is an ally with the food machine in this country that is screwing millions of people.

I am not anti-business. The free enterprise system has worked since the beginning of history. For example, Black Slavery. This enterprise was not limited to Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Washington, it was worldwide among white populations. Little countries like Denmark and Portugal became big international stars by kidnapping and selling African families. Slavery built the economy of the United States and our country has been the dominant economy in the entire world. The entire purpose of business is to achieve a PROFIT. That’s the absolute bottom line. Our government regulates the food industry like your family would condone your cousin that likes to break into houses and also sells drugs. We know he’s bad but he’s family. The food industry is the black sheep in the United States that is allowed to sleep in the Big White House and whose cousins are the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our government. Thus the Diabetes epidemic was not only able to begin, today as I write it has been allowed to continue. Why are 2 year olds becoming Type 2 Diabetics? When the child first started speaking, were her words “mama I want to be a Diabetic when I grow up”? Did the mother talk to her husband in bed that night and say ” I sure hope that our little girl becomes Diabetic, maybe she’ll DIE before she’s 40. MacDonalds, Wendys, Taco Bell and all the rest are not evil franchises. Good people from all walks of life own them and believe in them. These people are in business to make a profit, not to improve your health. If their products are making thousands of people obese and subject to Diabetes, Heart Disease and Stroke its not a problem. They just wait until the next generation of customers to born that night. Most children by the age of 2 recognize the MacDonald logo, the golden arches. Most children will recognize the Wendy’s big head. These same children will grow to adulthood without knowing how to read a food lable. This is by design. There is NO education to young children about healthy foods. There is unlimited education on TV and now online about food products that are absolutely not good for our children. The child buys into this hype. The parents buy into the ads. Hence, the Great American Ambush, Diabetes.

My first daughter was born in 1969. Her mother an I were both career people and worked 40 to 60 hours a week. Remember the cartoon “The Jetsons”. This futuristic family had everything at their fingertips, including meals. When MacDonalds hit our neighborhoods in the 1960′s we thought how wonderful. Almost like the Jetsons, we could drive up to this little box and order a happy meal for each child and each meal came with a toy! Absolutely brilliant marketing. Thus the 40 year Ambush was unleashed. The majority of Americans are blissfully unaware of the significance “processed foods”. When you pick a packet of sausage if you read the lable you might see ” 5% celloulose filler  as allowed by th USDA”. This means each sausage is 5% sawdust and 95% of who knows what. Hidden ingredients and disguised names of substances in foods are the norm. Sugar is one of the main ingredient in thousands of food products. They food industry is aware that the public is becoming more educated about reading labels. Sugar is now listed as “dehydrated cane juice”. Now that’s a hoot. There are about  20 separate names being used to disguise sugar. The consumption of sugar is probably the main precursor to becoming Diabetic. The number of children and adults becoming Diabetes in the United States is at a all time high and still growing. The Diabetes Ambush is still happening today.

FoodSpook

Yes, Type 2 Diabetes is Preventable