Live data from Hacker News

Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

theguardian.com

11–20 of 212 posts

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#11

My hard and fast rule in america is that everything aside from unions do not work in the interest of the people. The sooner this is taught to our kids, the better off they'll be from being indoctrinated from the trash on instagram/tiktok.

The more complete and histocally evidenced rule is that all institutions eventually just work to continue and/or expand their existence in itself. They can get founded in the genuine interests of some cause (and often are), but each transition in leadership tends to find itself more professionalized in some way and more divorced from the founding cause, with process (and/or corruption) becoming their effective mandat…

"First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization. "

It's the Iron Law of Bureaucracy https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#12

My hard and fast rule in america is that everything aside from unions do not work in the interest of the people. The sooner this is taught to our kids, the better off they'll be from being indoctrinated from the trash on instagram/tiktok.

Unions aren't acting in the interest of the people generically, often not even the members of the union. Otherwise they wouldn't go to court to force people who don't even want to be in the union to pay dues, even when the dues go to political campaigns unrelated to the purpose of the union, as in Janus v. AFSCME (where the support for political causes by the union meant it violated public sector workers freedom of speech if they are compelling fees from non-members, a relatively narrow ruling not impacting most unions).

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#13
post #2

The ADA has for a very long time told diabetics to keep eating carbs. Their tune is finally changing, but no, they don't give a shit about anyone other than themselves.

There is nothing about carbs themselves that is bad for diabetics.

Carbs are necessary macronutrient for everybody.

If you mean certain foods that also have a high percentage of carbs then sure but carbs are not the problem.

Take this line from the article itself, for example.

> It can be challenging for many people with diabetes to forgo the breads, sweets, pastas and starches that form the basis of many diets.

What’s common about these foods isn’t that they’re high in carbs. It’s that they’re nutritionally deficient foods that have been stripped of all their fibers and basically reduced to sugars.

Further, the diets promoted as low carb popularly are not good diets either for diabetics or for non diabetics.

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#14

My hard and fast rule in america is that everything aside from unions do not work in the interest of the people. The sooner this is taught to our kids, the better off they'll be from being indoctrinated from the trash on instagram/tiktok.

There is no "the interest of the people". There are lots of different people with different and often conflicting interests.

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#15
Worth noting that the only requirements to be recognized as an Association by the IRS is that there must be a dated, written document showing its creation, signed by at least two people. [1]

[1] https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/definition-of-an-a...

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#16
My diabetic wife has long been horrified at the dietary recommendations coming from the ADA, they are worse than useless. I don't blame the whistleblower for settling but it's a shame those people won't take consequences for actively harming people in exchange for corporate contributions. Their nonprofit status doesn't keep them from paying the top officers fat salaries out of those donations.

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#17

My hard and fast rule in america is that everything aside from unions do not work in the interest of the people. The sooner this is taught to our kids, the better off they'll be from being indoctrinated from the trash on instagram/tiktok.

There’s a movie clip I’ve seen with Brad Pitt of all people, explaining how America isn’t a nation, it’s a business. A business you don’t own and can’t escape. And you’re on your own. Something to that effect anyway. I’d love to know the movie or show! Its such a perfect example of a truth we all know but that never gets spoken aloud.

The Founding Fathers would be deeply ashamed of us, I think.

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#18

My hard and fast rule in america is that everything aside from unions do not work in the interest of the people. The sooner this is taught to our kids, the better off they'll be from being indoctrinated from the trash on instagram/tiktok.

The more complete and histocally evidenced rule is that all institutions eventually just work to continue and/or expand their existence in itself. They can get founded in the genuine interests of some cause (and often are), but each transition in leadership tends to find itself more professionalized in some way and more divorced from the founding cause, with process (and/or corruption) becoming their effective mandat…

Not all unions are perfect and there are certainly issues. That being said, the American solution of getting rid of them entirely is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Individual employees just do not have the negotiating heft of a corporation, particularly in the US with employer provided healthcare and whatnot.

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#19
post #2

The ADA has for a very long time told diabetics to keep eating carbs. Their tune is finally changing, but no, they don't give a shit about anyone other than themselves.

There is nothing about carbs themselves that is bad for diabetics. Carbs are necessary macronutrient for everybody. If you mean certain foods that also have a high percentage of carbs then sure but carbs are not the problem. Take this line from the article itself, for example. > It can be challenging for many people with diabetes to forgo the breads, sweets, pastas and starches that form the basis of many diets. What…

>Carbs are necessary macronutrient for everybody.

This is a wild claim to make and doesn't seem to hold true scientifically. Humans require fat, protein, and various vitamins usually received from vegetables. There is no requirement that comes from carbohydrates as they effectively are just empty calories.

Re: Does the American Diabetes Association work for patients or companies?

#20
> Over 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes

These two are not the same. It is dishonest to combine the two.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/07/29/prediabetes-the-ep...

I'm not quite ready to publish my hypothesis that prediabetes is a scam. I need to research it a little more. But a statistician friend of mine responded:

A handful of years ago, I looked into the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey, NHANES. To first order, the 1AC level defining pre-diabetes, 6.5, is rather close to the median level. So that's scam-adjacent. Every once in a while, my doctor thanks me for giving him this NHANES table.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g3Icgu0ixLtYCjscYoiC...

As soon as you say this, someone will respond "My father has diabetes and he had his foot amputated!" This is not minimizing diabetes; it's questioning whether prediabetes is a thing.

How is it different from saying "Men over 60 have pre-prostate cancer?" Or, "we all have pre-death?"

You should have a regular blood test and your doctor should be monitoring a lot of things, including blood sugar. If the level is close to diabetes, he or she should warn you. But that's different from saying, "you have a disease."

Post reply on HN