Saturday, August 13, 2005

What/Who Is Fueling A Growing Problem?

Although organizations such as WHO and the International Diabetes Foundation issued a warning about the growing epidemic of diabetes, not only in America but worldwide, major food companies are still lobbying the Bush Administration to defend their interest to promote junk food at the public’s expense. According to the latest estimates from the WHO, 177 million people worldwide have diabetes and this number is projected to increase to 366 billion by the year 2030. In the US alone, it is estimated that more than 17 million people are already living with diabetes. Now they are saying that diabetes kills more people worldwide than AIDS. This is not surprising since the latest information from the CDC if you drudge through their site, estimated that only 18,000 people died in the US from HIV/AIDS, whereas if you look at the Eggman site you will see that ~ 1 million have died from cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of deaths in the U.S and diabetes is number four. If you extrapolate this information and apply it to the worldwide population along with some data that talks about the truth behind the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it makes sense that diabetes is a biggest threat to the world’s health than HIV. As a result, more lives will be lost to diabetes than HIV/AIDS.

The Junk Food Nation: Who's to Blame for Childhood Obesity is an excellent article to show who, what, and how this latest epidemic is being fuelled.

Excerpt:
In recent months the major food companies have been trying hard to convince Americans that they feel the pain of our expanding waistlines, especially when it comes to kids. Kraft announced it would no longer market Oreos to younger children, McDonald's promoted itself as a salad producer and Coca-Cola said it won't advertise to kids under 12. But behind the scenes it's hardball as usual, with the junk food giants pushing the Bush Administration to defend their interests. The recent conflict over what America eats, and the way the government promotes food, is a disturbing example of how in Bush's America corporate interests trump public health, public opinion and plain old common sense.

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posted by Cynthia   Permalink| Comments(3)|

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