Diabesity: A Doctor and Her Patients on the Front Lines of the Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic
Diabesity: A Doctor and Her Patients on the Front Lines of the Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic Books
Product Description
Experts now predict that more than one-third of American children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Written by one of the world’s leading authorities on the link between obesity and diabetes, this passionate, frightening–but ultimately hopeful–book points the way to a solution.
To enter Dr. Francine Kaufman’s clinic is to see the future of America: a 220-pound twelve-year-ancient boy…a 267-pound thirteen-year-ancient girl…their concerned but equally hefty parents…the human faces and human suffering behind the epidemic of type 2 diabetes that threatens to overwhelm our health care system. Once a disease of the elderly, type 2 diabetes now strikes adults in their prime–and, increasingly, children. It has near doubled in the last decade. The cause? Our soaring rates of obesity.
Diabesity takes us to the front lines of the fight hostile to this preventable but deadly disease. Through vivid patient tales, it clarifies how excess consequence destroys the body’s ability to administer sugar properly–with life-threatening consequences. It shows what happens when the genes that evolved to protect us from famine collide with a sedentary lifestyle that has place bacon cheeseburgers on every corner. And it demonstrates why our usual blame-the-victim response is futile in face of the complex, worldwide forces behind this epidemic.
Detailing the tools for exchange at every level–from families to school systems to government–and reporting on innovative programs that are already making a difference, Diabesity offers a compelling action plot for winning this battle.
From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
Just as Quick Food Nation appalled thousands of readers into boycotting McDonalds and its ilk, one can hope that Diabesity might galvanize the broadcast to help preclude a mind-bogglingly huge epidemic from snowballing. Type II diabetes used to be a disease of the elderly; in 1997, the American Diabetes Association resolute to do away with the term “adult-onset diabetes,” as it increasingly appeared in middle-aged patients, young adults, and teens. It’s now appearing in obese children, and affects near 10 percent of the American populace;[p. 13] what’s most unbelievable is that its prevalence near doubled between 1990 and 2002, and shows no signs of abating, as every hefty American–that’s 64 percent of the populace–is at elevated risk.
Diabesity will likely petrify anyone recently diagnosed with diabetes into scrupulously monitoring their blood-sugar level, with frightening tales of loss of sight, heart attacks, kidney failure, gangrene, impotence in males, and infertility in females, and other side effects from diabetics’ elevated blood sugar. Dr. Kaufman gets a small full of herself when she describes audiences—from school boards to World Health Organization assemblies—going wild after her speeches on diabetes. But as a pediatric endocrinologist since the 1970s, she’s seen first-hand the rise of the diabetes epidemic, with comatose children appearing in her Los Angeles emergency room with blood-sugar levels 10 times what’s considered healthy, so high that they can’t be read with bestow-day equipment.
Curiously absent in Diabesity is any mention of the potential link between infant formula and the later development of diabetes. But Kaufman wins points for chronicling the fight to have L.A. ban soda sales in the schools. (“Sodas are the leading source of added sugar in children’s diets.”) Her descriptions of the cultural and economic differences among the diabetes epidemics in Plates, India, and Ecuador are also intriguing. The book should be considered essential for parents, teachers, and day-care providers; it’s grim reading, but that’s a small sacrifice compared to a life being cut small 20 years by a largely preventable disease. –Erica Jorgensen
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This poorly written and researched book is typical of the “hype” that is continually fed to the American broadcast — EVERYTHING is a crisis! EVERYTHING (from terrorism to the food we eat) is an epidemic! We are terrible, and we need to exchange our behavior — FAST, or some terrible disaster will befall us.
If you study the history of fads in the US, you find a disturbing trend to demonize food, or to judge that if you eat a certain way (all meat, no meat, vegan, low carbs, no carbs, etc.), then all will be well…you will live forever and your life will be perfect.
There is also an alarming tendency to blame people for their own health problems. It is rare to hear anyone be so heartless and cruel as to blame someone for getting cancer, but just listen to the self-righteous lecturing when author Francine Kaufman blames the hefty for developing diabetes!
I write this as someone who has so much diabetes in her family, that nearly every relative of mine has this disease…at least 90%. So I take it very sincerely, read everything I can on the illness and try to live as healthy a lifestyle as I can. But — it’s still an illness. My family history shows that it is clearly HEREDITARY, and not entirely due to lifestyle. A number of my family members who became diabetic (Type 2) were NOT obese…some were slightly hefty and others really slim.
One thing absolutely ignored by this poorly researched book is that slim people can and do develope Type II diabetes, especially with age. And that the majority of hefty individuals do NOT have diabetes.
There is observably a link between Type II diabetes and extra consequence, but the most advanced research indicates that diabetes is a far more complex disease than people previously plotting….the failure of the bodies complex system of administration carbs and sugars, insulin, etc. starts years before diabetes is diagnosable. I judge, by the side of with many researchers, that it is this long period of insulin surges that causes vulnerable individuals with a genetic pre-disposition to have huge appetites and overindulge, thus apt hefty. The hefty may be a signal that something is indeed incorrect metabolically with an individual, and should be managed. But, blaming the patient (i.e., he or she is a “stout pig” and needs to deny themselves every kind of excellent tasting food, plus do punishing excercise) is incorrect and is guaranteed to fail, as is ANY medical diagnosis that is based on blame and moral judgement, instead of science.
The largest problem fueling the “diabetes” crisis is that 45 million Americans do not have access to health insurance, and therefore, have no medical care of any kind. This means they can’t have the checkups, diagnosis, insulin, diabetes monitors, etc. that are essential to treating the disease…hence, their disease goes unchecked until it becomes a life-threatening crisis. This is intolerable in a civilized nation! This is the problem we need to be addressing, not blaming people and trying to shame them for having an illness.
I am heartily sick and tired of this kind of book, which exploits the sick and suffering of human beings, just to sell copies and comes up with “cute” names like “Diabesity” to describe serious medical conditions.
If you are interested in genuine diabetes research on the cold edge, or having serious concerns about yourself or a family member in this regard, please read some better researched and less commercial books on this theme.
Rating: 1 / 5
The author has done a superb job explaining how poor diet leads to obesity, insulin resistance, and then the devastation of diabetes. She tells about real people and how their lives were changed forever after they developed diabetes. Yes, there is a genetic component for some, but for far too many the cause is the typical poor diet that includes fried foods, sweets, and sugary drinks. She cites research and calls for action in stopping the risk to our health.
Dr. Kaufman comes across as compassionate and caring. The book is simple to know. Simply place, the human body is not engineered to take in so much sugar. Life threatening problems will develop if we don’t behave more sensibly.
One of the most vital parts of the book to me is the detailed description of just so what it’s like to live with diabetes and have to test one’s blood sugar many times a day and be constantly on the alert for high or low readings that can lead to complications or death.
This book is a must read for those who already have the disease, as well as for those who want to avoid ever getting diabetes or insulin resistance.
Rating: 5 / 5
I do wellness coaching for clients presenting with metabolic syndrome and Type II diabetes. This is an come forth of private significance to me. My dad died at age 56 of diabetes-correlated heart disease that may possibly have been controlled through diet and lifestyle… many of my close relatives have died too young from diseases that may possibly have been controlled through diet and lifestyle.
This book addressed the medical crisis of obesity and diabetes, factually and compassionately.
Diabesity is a call to private responsibility. Dr. Kaufman does a excellent job of connecting the dots. If you eat this way or live that way – down the road – these are the possible consequences. The excellent news is, simple lifestyle adjustments can dramatically exchange the outcome.
Rating: 5 / 5
A fantastic book which is a must read for everyone. Tells us all what we must do to reverse the major killer in our people… obesity and diabetes. The tales about patients really make the thought readible and simple to grasp.
thanks Dr. Kaufman…. you will save lives.
Rating: 5 / 5
My doctor not compulsory this book. It is brilliant. Very well written and very informative. Everyone who has been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes or if you have child that runs the risk of developing diabetes needs to read this book.
Rating: 5 / 5