Letters

  • Diabetes: Are You At Risk?
    I congratulate you for the clarity of your report on diabetes [Dec. 8]. For the past 19 years, as a pediatric endocrinologist dealing with children with diabetes, I have watched with amazement the increase in the number of young people with Type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult-onset diabetes), especially in the past 10 to 15 years. This escalation matches the tremendous rise in juvenile obesity. Many cases of Type 2 diabetes could be prevented by schools' reinforcing healthy eating habits and providing lunches (and breakfasts) that are not equivalent to fast food. In addition, foods rich in concentrated sweets or fats should bear warning labels. And finally, we should stop the incessant TV advertising of the most damaging foods during hours of children's programming.
    MICHELE ZERAH, M.D.
    Pensacola, Fla.

    Hillary Carroll, the girl on your cover, was 10 years old and weighed 220 lbs. before her Type 2 diabetes was diagnosed? Gee, what was her parents' first clue that she had some kind of problem? Long-term studies of diabetes are a nice idea, but let's not overlook the obvious. Most people today, especially children, eat too much and exercise too little.
    JOHN M. SAXTON JR.
    Clarksburg, N.J.


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    Could a contributing factor to childhood obesity and diabetes be the amount of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup consumed? I recently saw a photo of a high school lunch table littered with soda and sports-drink bottles. When I was in school (in the 1970s), the only drink available at lunch was milk. Why don't schools get rid of all the soda, candy and sports-drink vending machines?
    GREGORY HOYT
    Reading, Mass.

    People predisposed to diabetes would be much better off eating more natural, less-processed foods and should take drugs only as a last resort. I'm referring not just to fast foods but also to the majority of highly processed food staples found on grocery-store shelves. In today's mass-marketed brands there is a great deal of hidden sugar — not to mention unnecessary preservatives and saturated fat — that most people are blind to. Consumers are taken in by glossy packaging and big ad campaigns and buy foods without reading the ingredients. They will be delighted by how good natural foods can taste.
    KRIS SPENCER
    Royal Oak, Mich.

    If we treated our cars the way we do our bodies, millions of people would be stranded every day. We Americans do little about our health until there is a problem. Then we are suddenly amazed by what has happened to us. I'm surprised that more people do not seek the advice of a nutrition counselor. Is it because that is not covered by health insurance? My car insurance doesn't pay for oil changes, but I still have them done.
    DEANNE DEAVILLE
    Sunnyvale, Calif.

    Of course there's an epidemic of diabetes. We are getting fat. Why? Because we've got it too easy. We don't have to hunt or gather our food anymore. People are not physically active enough. Even when walking around the mall, they have sodas and fast food in their hands. It's sad to see this terrible and preventable disease run rampant among our youth. There are people around the world starving to death, and here we are eating ourselves to death.
    GLENYS McNALLY
    Freeport, N.Y.

    Surprise! It's the President
    By going to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day [Dec. 8], President Bush did what any decent leader should do during wartime: he took a great risk to show his country's soldiers that he was proud of them and grateful for their bravery. Was this trip dangerous? Sure. Unnecessary? No. I would have loved to see the G.I.s' faces firsthand when Bush entered the room. I'm proud of the President for going forward with his heart, as he always has. I can only pray that despite the constant media bashing, he can continue to show everyone he's not afraid to do the right thing.
    LAURA WAGNER
    Pickerington, Ohio

    The White House claims that the President went to Iraq to boost the morale of the troops, but he was in Baghdad for only 2 1/2 hours, and fewer than 600 troops saw him. Because of the secrecy, thousands of military personnel in the area didn't even know he was there. So how was their morale helped? Let's call the trip what it was: political grandstanding.
    FORREST G. WOOD
    Bakersfield, Calif.

    That President Bush has politicized the Iraq war is not novel. The chief executive of any state waging a war depends on the political will of the people to support that war until its conclusion. The campaign to sustain the public's political will includes appeals to patriotism, freedom, democracy and sacrifice and is a recurring theme in American history. Abraham Lincoln constantly worried about those who criticized the Civil War for its enormous loss of life and its aim of ending slavery to save the Union. And while World War II raged in Europe, F.D.R. had to defend his Lend-Lease program against isolationists in Congress. Only time will tell whether the Iraq war is worth the cost.
    WALTER LEE
    Orange, Calif.

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