What’s wrong with these two conflicting realities? And, why should diabetes advocates care (and take action)?

Reality 1: A food fight is raging on Capitol Hill because some members of the House of Representatives want to put the brakes on several requirements for school foods and meals which went into effect with the implementation of the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 (12/13/10). (Read more background below.).

Reality 2: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced updated figures for diabetes in the U.S. Top line: there’s been yet another uptick. Now more than 29 million American are estimated to have diabetes, up from 26 million in 2010. Another 86 million adults – more than one in three U.S. adults – have prediabetes (for more on prediabetes). Fifteen to 30 percent of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 within five years. To stats on the related childhood obesity: one out of every three American children is overweight or obese. Many children, who eat half their calories at school, consume a diet too high in saturated fat, sodium, and sugars, and too low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

As a diabetes educator/healthcare provider (DHCP) I’m observing that the rapidly growing world of the Diabetes Online Community, the DOC for short, is helping people with diabetes (PWD) and their loved ones find support and feel supported. People and their caregivers are connecting, building relationships and feeling more positive about the challenges of managing their diabetes. I’m delighted to see this trend!

As a DHCP I’ve long realized that I can’t walk a mile in a PWD shoes. I can’t know what it is like day in, day out to deal with this challenging and relentless disease. But, what I do know is that we can learn from each other to change the dialog between providers and PWD to be more positive, more supportive.
Goal one with these Dialoging about Diabetes interviews with diabetes activists is to help make living with diabetes…just a bit easier. Goal two is to enhance the two-way street – to help more PWD get connected and encourage more DHCPs to open the doors of social networking to PWD.

Here’s my dialog with Kerri Sparling, who’s had type 1 diabetes (T1D) for 27 years. Kerri jumped into the diabetes social networking world early on, in May of 2005 with her blog Six Until Me. She regularly contributes her personal thoughts in her column SUM Musings in the D-newsletter diatribe. She’s been an active member of the ever-expanding Diabetes Online Community (aka The DOC) and a diabetes advocate. Now Kerri has authored a book, Balancing Diabetes. Kerri’s book offers her account and the accounts of others, mainly those with T1D, who work to balance diabetes everyday through all the ins and outs of daily life.

This is one in a series of book reviews. You may find these books beneficial if you: manage prediabetes or diabetes, follow a diabetes meal plan and/or try to eat healthy to live well. These book reviews also appear on amazon.com and these books can be found in my amazon a-store. This book is also available from American Diabetes Association's book store. Please check out these books and consider a purchase.

Let’s face it: we know exercise is important, especially in managing diabetes. But sometimes it’s just hard to put exercise into practice nearly every day (as you’ve been told it should be done). Plenty of people have gotten the exercise bug and it’s ingrained in their daily lives. Other people, and you may be one, just plain hate to exercise.

In the 3rd edition of The “I Hate to Exercise” Book for People with Diabetes, authored by registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and exercise specialist, Charlotte Hayes, MMSc, MS, RD, CDE, exercise detesters get an ADA published and approved resource to turn to for sneaky ways to move more.