America’s losing battle against diabetes • Hacker News Board

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#41

Post by yawaworht1978 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

The health care model in the US doesn't really help much on the matter, but this isn't a battle against diabetes, diabetes is just the result of an overweight population with bad dietary habits.

There is the inherited kind, and then there is the "earned" kind. One is genetically unavoidable, the other is mostly preventable.

It is not even the food, or fats, or carbs, or sugars, it's too many calories over extended time frames and all the fizzy drinks with sugar and lattes with more calories than a pizza are what transfers people to diabetes city.

The body has ok ish prevention systems when it comes to food via ghrelin feedback loop and stomach size, but the body cannot cope with too much fast absorbed fluid calories.

The rise of zero calorie drinks is a decent first step, some people say these can make you fat as well, but that is entirely physically impossible, they contain zero energy and they do not cause blood sugar level volatility , else diabetics drinking them could drop dead within minutes.

Many people have very poor education on food matters and are falling to all kinds of marketing tricks, like bio(doesn't make it healthy) , no fat(replaced by sugar), natural ingredients or juice(how much and still, fluid fruit sugar is not good for you if you drink a bottle).

Sure, a basketball professional can have a Gatorade after a training when he is depleted of glycogen, but the Avery joe whos daily exercise is grabbing the beer and tv remote and constantly being saturated with carbs? Will not end well.

I didn't look up historical data but the self caused diabetes will certainly be more wide spread in nations with more obesity problems than nations with slimmer people.

And diabetes and blood sugar levels are just the start, there are many more undesired side effects.

Source, ex gf has masters in nutrition.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#42

Post by 02020202 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

it's such an easy solution to fix the insulin resitance that i don't know why this is still a thing. stop eating processed foods. ban sugar and vegetable oils from your house. eat a ton of meat, eggs, butter, ghee, lard, bacon..and you'll be fit in no time. omg.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#43

Post by 00deadbeef » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Is this the solution, though? Even if you could prevent new diabetes cases there are still countless millions of diabetics who wouldn’t be helped by a sugar tax.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#44

Post by RHSeeger » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #25

post_break wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop taxing everything. Tax is not the solution for everything. The people buying soda are generally the poor or middle class. All this does it take more money from those who need it the most. What we need to do is regulate how much sugar you can put into foods. But we can't do that. We have to prop up the corn industry with subsidies. Sugar and HFCS is in literally everything. By adding a sugar tax you're basically…

While I partially agree, I think it's for different reasons. Mostly those being "you cannot accurately predict how taxing will play out." But "poor or middle class" people choosing $2 soda over $3 orange juice... might choose $3 orange juice over $2 soda that has a $2 tax slapped on it. You cannot argue "they'll just keep buying the same thing when it's taxed all to hell." (Orange juice probably isn't much better tha…

Sadly, literally does actually mean "not literally" now

> 2 : in effect : virtually —used in an exaggerated way to emphasize a statement or description that is not literally true or possible

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#45

Post by base698 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #25

post_break wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop taxing everything. Tax is not the solution for everything. The people buying soda are generally the poor or middle class. All this does it take more money from those who need it the most. What we need to do is regulate how much sugar you can put into foods. But we can't do that. We have to prop up the corn industry with subsidies. Sugar and HFCS is in literally everything. By adding a sugar tax you're basically…

While I partially agree, I think it's for different reasons. Mostly those being "you cannot accurately predict how taxing will play out." But "poor or middle class" people choosing $2 soda over $3 orange juice... might choose $3 orange juice over $2 soda that has a $2 tax slapped on it. You cannot argue "they'll just keep buying the same thing when it's taxed all to hell." (Orange juice probably isn't much better tha…

> Sugar is not "literally in everything." Not for the dictionary meanings of "literally" and "everything."

I think you know what he meant. I remember having a similar discussion with my dad. He was surprised to learn his peanut butter and bread both had sugar as one of the top ingredients. Sauces in a lot of restaurants have it in high quantities. Even things like beef jerky can have twenty grams of sugar per serving.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#46

Post by Arrath » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #34

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Everyone talks about sugar. But the real problem is food culture (or the lack of). American, and now many European diets now consist of either fast food, oven-ready food or fried food. I recently went shopping and had a look at the "healthy" aisle. I could only find supposedly healthy food consisting of extremely savory dishes -carbonara, paella, etc. This is no way to eat healthy In many western countries, no one is…

Honest question, why the push for 'barely seasoned'? What are the dietary implications of a dash of pepper, paprika, garlic powder, turmeric, garam masala etc. if the salt and sugar is kept in check?

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#47

Post by jaywalk » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

jimbob45 wrote: post #24

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

The right solution is to educate people about what their A1C means and to incentivize them to check it. Most people don't know what theirs is - I would bet that less than five people in this very thread have checked their A1C in the last six months. Remember that diet isn't always sufficient to lower A1C and you may need drugs or other lifestyle changes. Mandate A1C checks bi-yearly for insurance providers or have th…

It sounds like you don't really understand what A1C tests are meant for either. There's a reason it's not part of a standard physical while blood sugar is.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#48

Post by 00deadbeef » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #34

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Everyone talks about sugar. But the real problem is food culture (or the lack of). American, and now many European diets now consist of either fast food, oven-ready food or fried food. I recently went shopping and had a look at the "healthy" aisle. I could only find supposedly healthy food consisting of extremely savory dishes -carbonara, paella, etc. This is no way to eat healthy In many western countries, no one is…

Meaty savoury dishes can be healthy. I really don’t understand what you think is wrong with them.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#49

Post by Smithalicious » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

NonContro wrote: post #2

Easiest solution to diabetes: Sugar tax. Easiest solution to climate change: Carbon tax. If we havn't used these solutions, someone high up in the food chain is placing a greater emphasis on profits from the status quo instead of the wellbeing of the population.

Any tax on food hits poor people much more than wealthier people. You are taking food out of people's mouths.

Re: America’s losing battle against diabetes

#50

Post by dorchadas » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

criticaltinker wrote: post #13

I strongly believe that fasting is one of the best ways to combat obesity, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and more. The scientific literature is certainly accumulating tremendous evidence supporting this hypothesis [1]. Here is one of my favorite videos on the subject [2], a talk by Dr Pradip Jamnadas who is one of the top cardiologists in Florida. There is no industry that profits on you being healthier thro…

For me it was a combination of fasting and cutting out as much added sugar as possible (I still do natural sugars in fruits, etc). I'm down 20 pounds since June, and it's mostly been all fat. My exercise level did go up a bit (from ~5 miles a day to 6+) simply because I'm a teacher and didn't have school all day, but in general I'm just all around healthier from really focusing on fasting (was doing it before, but more stringently now) and cutting out sugar. It's been great.