It is almost common knowledge these days that many of our children - some experts say as many as 1 in 20 - suffer from obesity and type II diabetes. Those that have sidestepped these conditions but who engage in the same behavior as the ones who suffer are only prolonging the inevitable.
Articles like this one are everywhere on the net. They discuss the statistics, the dangers, etc. and are quite informative, but what most of these articles fail to discuss is the direct cause and the solution to the problem.
I am always shocked and dismayed by how many experts - physicians included - when confronted with this issue forget all of their basic biochemistry. It is all too common to hear phrases like "How did this horrible obesity epidemic happen?" "We need to fight to find the cure and defeat diabetes!" Why hysteria usurps science is anyone's good guess. But the sad thing about this 'mental meltdown' is that our beloved children continue to suffer and suffer profoundly.
I often ask doctors the $64,000 question in reverse and a touch sideways: "Is it possible for a child (or an adult for that matter) to become obese and/or type II diabetic if carbohydrate consumption is virtually nil?" I ask them to set aside their biases for a split sec on eating fat and its effect on heart health or eating a lot of protein and kidney damage (which, by the by, are both complete myths) and focus on the mechanisms by which fat is stored.
The answer is always the same. If there are no glandular problems, by eating little to no carbohydrate it is virtually impossible to become obese or type II diabetic.
Here is the Reader's Digest version of obesity and type II diabetes. Realize this happens over years of high carbohydrate consumption:
Sugar and carbohydrate in = spikes and rises in insulin = fat storage and insulin resistance = more insulin than normal needed = pancreatic burnout = obesity and type II diabetes.
So the issue isn't how this epidemic occurred or how to fix it, the answer is this: Are the experts willing to accept reality and teach their patients and clients to give up the carbs which include all complex carbohydrates save for non-starchy vegetables and perhaps, a piece of fruit a day? (Remember, Ben Franklin said "An apple a day..." not five.)
In fact, for over a century this has been the solution in many different countries. When obese kids are placed on low carbohydrate diets (under 60 grams) they ALL get better. In fact, a low carb diet is so potent that if a child (or an adult) is on blood sugar medications, the dose has to be diminished and/or stopped entirely or the patient could suffer from too low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
What does that tell you?
It is high time that physicians and other health care professionals ditch the USDA food pyramid shopping cart (which is how we got fat and diabetic in the first place) and adopt a 'real food' or paleolithic type of eating plan. Instead of slicing a child's body open and tying her stomach with a band, teach her how carbohydrates affect her body and fill her kitchen with the right foods so that when she eats she eats the right thing.
Since we know what the solution is, anything less is criminal. Occam's Razor states that the simplest solution is usually the correct one. If we want to fix the health care system, we need to stop making people need it.
What are you waiting for?