The Sweetening of America

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicts that as many as 1 in 3 Americans could be diabetic by the year 2050.  Staggering, right?  Is there something in the water?  Should we start to wear diabetes masks on planes to prevent being infected?  Well, if you're sitting reading this, you may already be a carrier...

Several things will likely come together to create the 2050 diabetic perfect storm.

First, everyone is getting older.  Yes, this is true every minute of every day (tic toc, tic toc), but here is something else we can partially blame on the "baby boomers" getting older.  Social Security and Medicare will first go bankrupt, and then 1/3 of the country will be diabetic.  Truth is, Type 2 diabetes is much more common in older adults, and so the "Aging of America" will catch up with us on rates of diabetes. 

En segundo lugar, las minorías estará más cerca de la mayoría. (click here to translate)  If you don't want to take the time to translate, basically, minority groups like Hispanic, Asian and African Americans have a higher incidence of diabetes than do Caucasian groups, on average.  As the proportion of these groups grow compared to the total population, we will likely see this contribute to our 1 in 3 predicament.

Finally, there is the general negative/positive impact of our advances in medicine.  The good?  People are living longer.  Similar to my first point above, older people have more chronic conditions, like diabetes.  The bad?  People are living longer. 

So, what do we do?  Well, we could keep going on our merry way, and hope that smart scientist-type people breed a mosquito that doesn't like sweets.  Or, we could start development of those cool chairs they had aboard the spaceship in Wall-E. 

The truth is we all know what we need to do, but as a whole, we just don't do it.  We need to 1) improve our diets and 2) increase our level of exercise.  Cut out the sugar-rich sodas - how about a glass of water?  One lump or two?  How about some Splenda (it really does taste about the same) instead?  Should I get in the car to drive to the mailbox?  Hmm, maybe only twice a week instead of every day...

We will ultimately individually decide if we will be on the sweet side or the healthy side of the division of America in 40 years.  Personally, I'm hoping for a blockbuster drug discovered and manufactured by a previously unknown company, the stock of which I will purchase right before this new product hits the market.  Just in case, though, I'll have a Coke Zero, please.