Never before in human history have we seen "adult onset" or Type 2 diabetes in children. There has been a more than 1,000 percent increase in Type 2 diabetes in children over the last two decades. (1) Fifteen years ago 3 percent of new cases of diabetes in children were Type 2 diabetes. Now it is 50 percent. (2) Forty percent of children are now overweight and 2 million are morbidly obese, exceeding the 99th percentile for weight. (3)
Scientists say that we have only 3,600 cases of Type 2 diabetes in children. (4) Nonsense. Almost all of those 2 million morbidly-obese kids have either pre-diabetes or diabetes or what we should call "diabesity." In adults, 25 percent of diabetics and 90 percent of pre-diabetics are not diagnosed. In children, most of the cases are missed. (5)
A study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that medications don't work and general lifestyle instruction isn't much help either to treat Type 2 diabetes in children. And the disease is more rapidly progressive and aggressive in children. Kids who haven't even learned to swallow a pill are now facing giving themselves daily insulin injections. Poor and minority kids are more heavily afflicted.
Do we really think we can medicate our way out of a bad diet? Can we really overcome the 54 gallons of soda consumed every year by the average American, or the 34 teaspoons of sugar consumed DAILY by the average child in America with a medication or some handouts on eating better? (6) One of the drugs used in the study, Avandia, has been responsible for more than 200,000 deaths from heart attacks since it was introduced in 1999. (7) The Food and Drug Administration has restricted its use. Should we be using this in children? This is pharmageddon.
Putting these little children on insulin sooner doesn't make any sense either. Starting insulin in diabetics is a slippery slope, leading to a cascade of increasing weight gain, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The sugar comes down, but everything else that kills diabetics gets worse.
Adult diseases are now commonplace in children. I recently spoke at an Emory University conference on childhood Type 2 diabetes.I met a pediatric gastroenterologist and wondered what he was doing at a conference on diabetes. He told me he now has 5-year-old patients with cirrhosis from fatty liver caused by years of drinking soda. There has been a more than 50 percent increase in strokes in children aged 5 to 14. (8) We are now seeing heart attacks in teenagers and 20 year olds needing cardiac bypass surgery because obesity and diabetes clogs their arteries.
This is a disease that is nearly 100 percent preventable and reversible. But it won't be solved in the doctor's office, clinic or hospital. It has to be fixed where it begins: in our homes, communities and our society and in our government policies and industry practices. This is a social disease, and we need a social cure.
This study should be a national wake-up call. A siren blaring the insanity of our current medical approach to obesity and Type 2 diabetes for both children and adults.
When a 5-year-old has cirrhosis and an 8-year-old has a stroke this is not about personal choice or better medication. Now that scientists have proven that fast food and sugar are biologically addictive, we can't blame the individual or the family. Can a heroin addict just cut down?
We need a massive call to action, a national coordinated multi-pronged campaign. We need President Obama and all the Republican candidates to stand before the nation and declare we will end Type 2 diabetes in children by the end of this decade, just like President Kennedy mobilized our nation to get a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.
The food industry must be held to account. Simple policy changes could have enormous impact.
The food industry tries to convince us that all calories are the same, that a snack of carrots or Oreos is the same as long as they are 100 calories each. The science proves otherwise. Sugar calories act differently in the body, driving biology toward diabetes. And carrots aren't addictive, but sugar is.
The food industry has hijacked our taste buds, our brain chemistry, our kitchens, our homes, our schools and our communities. When children have nearly unlimited access to sugar and processed food, when we have 600 calories more per day of sugar calories per person than 30 years ago, we have to have an honest accounting of the playing field. (9) The food environment is designed for kids and adults to fail.
The SNAP program (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), or food stamps, was started to provide "good food to hungry people," but now provides bad food to the overweight. While it is true that poverty and obesity go hand in hand because sugar calories and processed food are cheap and because government subsidies lower the prices of corn and wheat products, there is no reason that the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) should put $4 billion of taxpayer money into the coffers of soda manufacturers every year by allowing the use of food stamps to buy soda.
That is more than 29 million a day, or 10 billion servings a year of soda that our government feeds the poor in this country. Then the government pays again through Medicare and Medicaid for obesity- and diabetes-related illness. Maybe we should call it the "Supplemental Nutrition Obesity Program." You can't buy alcohol, cigarettes or prepared meals with food stamp -- why should kids buy soda with them?
We can't ignore or accept this any longer.
The food industry blames the victim and tells us we are just lazy, it's about our sedentary lifestyles. Eat whatever you want, we are told, but just exercise more. You would have to run four miles a day for one week to burn off just ONE fast food meal. That strategy won't work. You can't exercise your way out of a bad diet. Moving is important, but changing the food environment is more important.
We now have a nation where 75 percent of the applicants for military service are unfit to serve because of obesity. (10) The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two surgeon generals have called this a national security issue. Childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes also affects our global economic competitiveness because health disparities lead to an achievement gap. As our kid's waist sizes grow, their brain power shrinks.
We need community action and policies to support healthy communities. Since our government, corporations and health care institutions fail to provide solutions, mothers stand arm-to-arm in front of convenience stores to block kids from entering after school.
But there are things that can be done. We need a grassroots movement and government policies and programs to change the food landscape and the built environment to give our children a chance to have happy, healthy successful lives. Children with obesity and diabetes live harder poorer lives, they often don't finish school and earn much less than their healthy counterparts.
We may not be able to win the war in Afghanistan, but we can end this. But it will take an approach that works on all the forces that drive obesity and diabetes in children simultaneously -- at home, at school, in local neighborhoods and communities, in the media, and in corporate regulation and government policies that foster health rather than disease.
Here are a few initiatives and ideas that may help shift this frightening tide of poverty and disease:
What are you doing in your home, your family, in your schools and communities to end the attack on our children and our nation's future? We have the power to take back our health. It starts with small choices, local action and political advocacy. Now more than ever we have the collective power to change this. Let's do it for our children's sake.
Now I'd like to hear from you...
Do you have local programs in your schools to encourage healthy meals?
Are there any cooking classes offered to children in your community?
Have your children reduced or eliminated sugar from their diets?
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, M.D.
1. Ludwig DS, Ebbeling CB. Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children: primary care and public health considerations. JAMA. 2001 Sep 26;286(12):1427-30.
2.Pinhas-Hamiel O, Zeitler P. The global spread of type 2 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents. J Pediatr 2005;146:693-700
3. Murtagh L, Ludwig DS. State intervention in life-threatening childhood obesity. JAMA. 2011 Jul 13;306(2):206-7.
5. www.unitedhealthgroup.com/hrm/unh_workingpaper5.pdf
6. Lustig RH, Schmidt LA, Brindis CD. Public health: The toxic truth about sugar. Nature. 2012 Feb 1;482(7383):27-9.
7. Nissen SE, Wolski K. Rosiglitazone revisited: an updated meta-analysis of risk for myocardial infarction and cardiovascular mortality. Arch Intern Med. 2010 Jul 26;170(14):1191-1201.
8. Tong, American Stroke Association, Annual Meeting 2011 (abs)
9. Lustig RH, Schmidt LA, Brindis CD. Public health: The toxic truth about sugar. Nature. 2012 Feb 1;482(7383):27-9.
10. Lustig RH, Schmidt LA, Brindis CD. Public health: The toxic truth about sugar. Nature. 2012 Feb 1;482(7383):27-9. And personal communication General Jack Keane
11. Lustig RH, Schmidt LA, Brindis CD. Public health: The toxic truth about sugar. Nature. 2012 Feb 1;482(7383):27-9.
12. Personal communication NY State Commissioner of Health
13. http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2005/Food-Marketing-to-Children-and-Youth-Threat-or-Opportunity.aspx
Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician, founder of The UltraWellness Center, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook, and subscribe to his newsletter.
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I hate sugar as much as the next person, but you are suggesting a whole lot of government intervention into something people find intensely personal: food. While I think sugar, grains, etc, are basically poison, someone out there swears by them. I would hate if someone (like the guy from CSPI) wanted to raise taxes on my butter or grass fed beef, foods that make me feel healthy, vital, and happy.
This is a problem, but government intervention and taxation aren't the answer.
-Nutritionfix.com
Spot on with this write-up, I truly think this website needs much more consideration. I’ll probably be again to read much more, thanks for that info.
www.lovefilmuk.co.uk
9. Stop promoting low-fat diets.
I couldn't agree more. Lw fat diet basically send the message "binge, you are not "jeopardizing" your health"
I have raised 5 children and they were taught moderation and the importance of a balanced diet. as young adults, they will eat junk and fast food, just like anyone else BUT they are capable of making good nutritional decisions. put the onus on the parents and since it is beginning so young, put it in the schools and the doctors to educate educate educate.
My kids practically fell over if I brought treats home-they still talk about it and they are in there 30-40's. 'Treats' were apples,oranges and fresh fruit off the tree. Salads were every night prequel to dinner and french fries were for special ocasions.
They got to snack on fruit or veggies. One kid ate so many carrots I thought he would turn orange.
Their kids have been raised with lots of fruit, veg and good cooking, which is the real secret. It isn't fast food, its how often it’s eaten.
Nothing wrong with McDonalds once in a while, or any other place. But are good wholesome meals prepared and served at home?
I figure in nearly 44 years of marriage, I have prepared about 13,500 dinners. Some nights I thought I would go blind with boredom and repetition. But six children were raised healthy, fit and slender. They are raising their children the same.