Yes folks, I’ve now launched the membership site, with information, a community forum and structured learning programmes for people with diabetes and their families.
Check it out right now at www.diabetesdietdoctor.com.
A new report, The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes, just published by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA), has summarised and confirmed the results of the 2005 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
It shows a clear link between High Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) scores and the amount of both obesity and Type 2 diabetes in a neighbourhood.
The RFEI is made by dividing the total number of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores by the total number of grocery stores and local produce vendors in the area, so reflects the proportion of people eating diets with less fruit and vegetables.
The average Californian has easy access to four times as many fast-food restaurants and convenience stores as grocery stores and produce vendors.
Obesity rates are 20 percent higher for Californians with RFEIs of five and above compared to those with RFEIs below three.
Diabetes rates are 23 percent higher for Californians with RFEIs of five and above compared to those with RFEIs below three.
Nearly half of Californians have three times as many fast food outlets as fresh food outlets near them.
Pretty shocking eh?
Although some people have contested results like this in the past, it seems fairly clear to me that high carbohydrate, high trans-fats diets are a sure-fire recipe for putting on weight. and developing diabetes.
DESIGNED FOR DISEASE: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes. The California Center for Public Health Advocacy, PolicyLink and The UCLA Center for Health Policy. 2008.
In an international study of 839 obese patients with Type 2 diabetes, rimonabant produced significant wieght loss, a reduction in waist size and an increase in HDL (”good”) cholesterol levels, but did not lead to any significant change in percentage atheroma volume. There was a small effect on total atheroma volume, but this was not clinically significant. The drug was associated with a high level of psychiatric side effects, as it has done in previous trials, and it has now been withdrawn in the US for this reason.
Weight loss in diabetes remains problematic, but the answer still seems to lie in cutting energy intake, particularly of carbohydrates, and taking more exercise.
Nissen et al. JAMA. 2008;299(13):1547-1560. Published online April 1, 2008 (doi:10.1001/jama.299.13.1547).