NZ faces wave of diabetes - study

3/03/2013 12:12:09 p.m.

Frankie wrote:

Publishing in the journal Diabetes Care, Australian researchers recently r eported that diabetics with the highest levels of sodium in their urine had the lowest risk of dying over a 10-year period. It's not ethical to force one group of diabetics to eat lots of salt and compare them to another group of diabetics you don't allow to eat salt and see what happens. Like many researchers before them, the research team at the University of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria relied on long-term observation. They chose a group of 638 men and women who had type 2 diabetes, most of them in their 60's, half of them obese. These are precisely the people who would be told they have to cut back on fat and salt. What these researchers did differently was, instead of asking their study participants how much salt they ate every day, they measured urine samples to determine precisely how much excess sodium was being excreted. Over the 10 years of the study, 175 participants died, mostly of cardiovascular disease. But diabetics who had 2,300 milligrams more salt than the average had a 28 per cent better chance of staying alive, even after allowing for kidney disease and age at the beginning of the study. There are some very simple reasons why this would be so.

1/03/2013 9:13:10 p.m.

Bryan Campbell wrote:

I have been following the articles about diabetes on the main news and Campbell Live tonight, but it is a pity you are only getting half the story and your articles are contradicting each other. E.g. the article about the Mediterranean Diet, featured 2 days ago was opposed to eating red meat and then that fella Elder, on Campbell Live tonight, promotes eating red meat. I wish you would do an article on Jason Shon Bennett. Jason is the most experienced statistician on facts and procedure concerning these matters, in the Southern Hemisphere. Go to http://www.jasonshonbennett.com You are missing out on such a great chance for a really big story. eg. Meats Sweats and Wheats are so bad that it would make cigarettes in plain green packets look like medicine. Regards Bryan Campbell

1/03/2013 8:01:20 p.m.

Missy wrote:

It makes me angry to see this. So many people are living on the poverty line or below. The crap food is cheaper to buy so of course people in situation are going to get sick. I just hope like hell that something changes soon.

1/03/2013 4:29:06 p.m.

alison wrote:

This govt cant sort out novopay so how the hell would they be able to come up with a preventative for diabetes?

1/03/2013 3:38:55 p.m.

Pamela Moresby wrote:

This result wouldn't surprise me at all, as all the cheaper foods in the supermarket are higher in fat, salt and sugar. The contents of the product are written so small that many can't read it. People who are fat, are often under nourished because they don't get the proper nutrition from the fruit and vegetables that they need. Wholemeal flour is better than white flour and processed foods rob the food of vitamins and nutrients. Diabetes is a disease that is strongly related to poverty, and I've worked for a food bank, many people going there have diabetes. Cheaper meats are loaded with saturated fats. It is possible for people to overcome obesity with support, a proper diet and exercise.

1/03/2013 1:23:39 p.m.

tracey wrote:

so parts of the population arnt getting enough food, parts of the population are so obese etc its killing them. Maybe its time for home econics/etc to be compulsory in school and time for people to start being responsible for their own choices its pretty obvious leaving everything up to the government doesnt work so how about we take on our own consequeces from our own choices

1/03/2013 12:36:46 p.m.

Robo wrote:

Wow - They only have just relised this about the adult population. What about the kids. You see so many over-weight kids not excersising and eating poor/bad foods. Just wait for the future generation diabetic "boom" which will be worse than now.
Education and higher taxes on poor nutritional food especially salted and sugared foods. 1x thing a health expert once told me was if you feel like snacking drink a decent glass of water first and then if you still feel like snacking, nuts and fruit and that's fantastic educated advice. You don't need seasoning like salt. Salt may "enhance" food flavour but more than anything it creates a desire to drink more, probably alcohol, or eat more becuase of the moist flavours coming out of the food. Make the manufactures and suppliers of sugared and salted foods pay by taxing them the equavilant in dollars it costs us the tax payer in health services for diabetics. Put that money then into first education about nutrition and then into the health system that has to look after the people that don't get cuaght in time.

1/03/2013 12:00:09 p.m.

AaronC wrote:

Of course it has nothing to do with meat and dairy consumption..

1/03/2013 10:27:38 a.m.

ridley wrote:

This is not surprising, really just one of many other conditions, not just in NZ but in all western Countries. It’s the manufactures of the food we eat,/drink such as sodas,etc, all the additives, preservatives, sweeteners, artificial colors, etc. They just can not leave the food alone, nothing is natural any more. Foods such as meat any meat the animals have been injected , given all sorts of hormones in their food, vegetables have been messed genetic engineering etc. They have also been sprayed with chemicals. Fruit from overseas such as USA. AUS, has been radiated to preserve shelf life, kill spiders etc in the containers. What is happening now is a result of this.

1/03/2013 8:22:40 a.m.

dave wrote:

What about the other factor in diabetes? Salt.

Too much salt in the diet causes an over production of insulin, which causes weight gain and/or a breakdown of the pancreas, which leads to diabetes and eventually death. Salt also stops people from feeling satisfied from their meal, as every milligram of salt creates a hunger for an equal milligram of potassium (which is found in abundance in ice cream and beer etc...) and a strong thirst (which many prefer to quench with sugar drinks)...

Over eating of histories favorite preservative is the major culprit in diabetes as far as I am concerned...