Frustration

Frustration: It seems like the last couple of days I have had more frustration with food. I have yet to crave any certain things but it just gets frustrating with what you can't have. It makes me think about all we take for granted. I understand that I need a certain amount of carbs daily, I understand that I need a certain amount of sugar daily, I understand that I need a certain amount of calories daily.....I completely understand! What angers me is the fact that you get these pamphlets that have labels on them that say "Changing Life with Diabetes: Carb Counting and Meal Planning; Tools to help you manage your blood sugar." and you open it up an there you have all these wonderful foods. Things like oatmeal, pancakes, cereal, candy bars, fast food items. It gives you what you should be eating from these things daily. But here's the kicker. The diet that I am adhering to per say. I hate the word diet. Because I am not on a diet it's just what I can and can't eat. Because I have made the choice to control my diabetes. I have chosen to not eat certain things and to curve the amounts of other things. I do not want diabetes to have the best of me. I want the upper hand!

So, back to the rant I was in the middle of. This pamphlet. Right, well I am going through it and finding all these foods that I am COMPLETELY avoiding. There they are. There is even a fast food section, a candy and sweets section, and an alcohol section. After further investigation with this pamphlet I discovered that it wasn't put out by the American Diabetes Association, nor was it put out by any other well known medical research group or set of doctors. It happens to be put together by Novo Nordisk a drug manufacture. Can you see where I am going here?

What I have learned is that I can control my blood sugar numbers by exercising and controlling the foods I eat (diet). I have completely changed the way I eat. By not having things like a burger and fries, a Klondike bar or 3, and foods packed with preservatives....I am in control. ME! Not the money hungry drug companies! If you were to continue on the diet the pamphlet suggest you are destined to remain on medication and even injections of man made insulin! No wonder why people have to have things amputated! It's because we allow people to mislead us!

Packed into all of this I found out last night that I can save money by having my doctor prescribe me a different pill. Well it's not different it's just 2 put together. One of my medications, Januvia, is very costly. With my insurance it cost me $60. I found out last night that without insurance it cost $300 for 30 pills! Really? The other medication I am on is Metformin. It's a rather cheap drug and it cost me with insurance $10. The manufactures of Januvia have put the 2 together and it's called Janumet. I can save $10 with the Janumet. My goal is to lose the weight and get off the medications completely! It's a lifestyle change. Stop eating the fast food sugar and sodium packed crap and eat what God made. Do you have to be creative? YES! Why is it that our society has made it acceptable for us to ingest such crap? Believe me I was one of those people. I loved snack cakes, candy bars, ICE CREAM, Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese! I went through 4 bottles of large ketchup in 2 months.

When you add all that crap with my family history it basically SUCKS! So, go ahead eat the fast foods, eat the candy bars, dish out all the mac and cheese you can because it will catch up with you. Everyday we see headlines that talk about the growing amount of autistic kids. What causes that? I would venture to guess that 9 out of ten investigations that I conduct involve a child that is either on medication for ADHD, ADD, OCD, Bi-polar, or some other behavioral problem. Wish I were joking. It is simple to grab a happy meal, or a can of ABC's and 123's, or a frozen skillet ready meal. It's even cheaper than buying fresh produce and making a meal. But the question we should ask....what is it doing to our bodies?

One of the largest groups of people with Diabetes are Native Americans. Studies show that Native Americans are more at risk for Diabetes. My fathers side of the family has a lot of Native American blood. I have my own theories of why Native Americans are at greater risk of this disease and others as well.

The facts below came from this website http://vltakaliseji.tripod.com/Vtlakaliseji/id2.html Resources for Native Americans with Diabetes.

Prevalence of type 2 diabetes among Native Americans in the United States is 12.2% for those over 19 years of age. One tribe in Arizona has the highest rate of diabetes in the world. About 50% of the tribe between the ages of 30 and 64 have diabetes. Today, diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among Native Americans. Complications from diabetes are major causes of death and health problems in most Native American populations. Of equal concern is the fact that type 2, or adult-onset diabetes, is increasingly being discovered in Native American youth. Diabetes Rapidly Increasing Among Native Americans, Alaskans Reported in the December, 2000 issue of Diabetes Care: Diabetes has been growing in prevalence among Native Americans and Alaskan Natives,according to a recent study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found a nearly 30 percent increase in diabetes diagnoses among these populations between 1990 and 1997. During this time period prevalence among women was higher than among men, but the rate of increase was higher among men than women (37 percent v. 25 percent). The increase in prevalence was highest in Alaska, where it rose 76 percent during the 1990s, and lowest in the Northern Plains region of the United States, where it rose by 16 percent during this time period.

Just a little bit of info from the American Diabetes Association.

Cost of Diabetes
$174 billion: Total costs of diagnosed diabetes in the United States in 2007
$116 billion for direct medical costs
$58 billion for indirect costs (disability, work loss, premature mortality)
After adjusting for population age and sex differences, average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association has created a Diabetes Cost Calculator that takes the national cost of diabetes data and provides estimates at the state and congressional district level.
Factoring in the additional costs of undiagnosed diabetes, pre-diabetes, and gestational diabetes brings the total cost of diabetes in the United States in 2007 to $218 billion.
• $18 billion for the 6.3 million people with undiagnosed diabetes • $25 billion for the 57 million American adults with pre-diabetes • $623 million for the 180,000 pregnancies where gestational diabetes is diagnosed.


So that's my rant for today!