One in four kids have either pre-diabetes or diabesity. In a shocking new study published online in this week, researchers found that from 2000 to 2008, the number of teenagers aged 12 to 19 with pre-diabetes or diabetes increased from 9% to 23%.
Yikes, one in four kids have either pre-diabetes or diabetes – what I like to call diabesity. How did this happen? Just 15 years ago, less than 3% of new cases of childhood diabetes were type 2 (or what we used to call adult onset), now it is nearly 50% of all new cases of diabetes in kids.
In this study of 3,383 children, aged 12 to 19, the most shocking finding was not just the exploding rates of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes in children, which alone should make us all stop whatever we are doing and become health activists, it was the fact that 13% of kids of normal weight were either pre-diabetic or diabetic.
We need to stand up in our homes, communities and schools and create healthy environments for kids. We need to take back our kids taste buds, our kitchens and our homes, which have been hijacked by the food industry and ban anything except real food.
