Type-II Diabetes Is Preventable, But There's No Money in That

The Nation has a good article on how the diabetes epidemic is being completely ignored by the medical community because there is much more money to be made treating the complications of diabetes than in preventing it.

The article also looks at how the food industry is making the problem worse.

This is a disease of low- and middle-income people. They are the ones who live off factory-made food loaded with the grease and sugar from which American people are sickening at an ever younger age.

At home and at school children are habituated to eating what will kill them. There is profit in poisoning the population, and lethal food peddling, unlike lethal drug peddling, is legal. A go-getting, job-creating ad agency entrepreneur can make a hell of a lot of money teaching children how to grow fat and kill themselves.

These two issues are prime examples of why we need an Integral fitness solution, not another diet plan or exercise program. If we do not look at the cultural values around food and health and the the societal support (economic, in particular) for getting sick from diabetes (as shown in this article), we'll never solve the problem.

The problem is not simply weak people who eat too much of the wrong foods. When the food industry is contributing to the problem in every way possible and the medical community cuts diabetes prevention programs because there is more money to be made on dialysis and amputations than on preventing the disease in the first place, it's the society that helps create and support the problem.

To solve the problem of obesity and diabetes, we must also look at how our economy supports these diseases. We need an integral approach to the problem.