But this second time was slightly different. First was when I watched Fed Up. I have mentioned it before. Have you watched it? Watching this movie began to stir up a lot of feelings that I have been dealing with in the past year and a half. Last October, we moved my grandparents from Florida to NC to be closer to us. Just three short weeks after they had moved here, we lost my grandfather. My grandmother has dementia. Not only does she have dementia, but she also has type 2 diabetes. She wasn't diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes until late in her life. However, I believe that she was dealing with diabetes for a long time before it was ever diagnosed. Caring for a person with dementia is one of the hardest things I have witnessed and experienced. About a year ago, my dad was told by his doctor that he was pre-diabetic. With diet and exercise, he did away with that diagnosis. But it is a scary thought! In all three of my pregnancies, I was a borderline Gestational Diabetic and was told by my doctor that I may develop diabetes later in life based on family history and as being gestational diabetic causes you to be more prone to diabetes later in life.
Type 2 diabetes is an epidemic. I am sure all of you have been impacted by this disease in your life by someone you love or even by yourself. We spend so much money as a society every year looking for a cure for cancer because it is such an epidemic and we are losing people we love to cancer. But we are losing people to diabetes too. But the fact of the matter is that type 2 diabetes is something that can be cured with diet and exercise! Not only that, there are many correlation studies that show that people who have issues with sugar/diabetes will later have a higher chance of dementia or alzheimer's.
It's not just diabetes. I think that some of the other causes of death can be food related if we just took care of ourselves and changed our diets. One staggering statistic that I came across said that this generation of children will be the first generation who will not live longer than their parents. Say what!?!? The most heart breaking is that adults have a choice what they put in their mouths. Kids don't. As a society, we should be outraged that this is a statistic for our kids!
I feel as I have babbled on some. Basically it is this. I have experienced first hand the causes type 2 diabetes has had on my family. I do not want to be a statistic, I am not okay with taking pills for the rest of my life to control something that I can do with diet and exercise, I want to live a full life until my last days without dementia/alzheimers, and I want my children to outlive me. I am not naive enough to know that that isn't a possibility but I am optimistic enough to know that I at least tried.
It is a complete mind shift and it has been a difficult one to make. But it comes down to this...One of the biggest comments that I have gotten since I have started this process is "I Couldn't do it!" Maybe. I know that I said "I couldn't" when I first heard it. It's not that I couldn't, it's that I wouldn't. Is that you? Are you willing to try?
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