Almost 24 million Americans have diabetes and 6 million more are diabetic and don’t even know it.  Factor in the 57 million that are pre-diabetic, and you have yourself an epidemic, no matter how you keep score.  

Nearly one in ten Americans has diabetes, and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) predicts one in three adult Americans will be diabetic by 2050. 

If you have three young children, by the time they are 50 years old, the law of averages tells us that one of your three kids will be diabetic.

Only 5% to 10% of all diabetes cases are Type 1 diabetes, where the body doesn’t produce insulin.  The rest of the diabetes cases are Type 2 diabetes, which can be controlled with diet and exercise, and reducing stress.

If diabetes doesn’t scare you, please consider that diabetes can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, and lower body amputations.

The CDC says that the major contributing factors to the growing epidemic include an aging population and diabetics living longer, plus an increasing number of at-risk minorities.  Oh yea, they also say as an after thought that the rise in obesity in America plays a role.  What the CDC doesn’t bother to tell us is that we are eating ourselves into this disease and we can control the outcome with our diet and our lifestyle.   

If you are questioning where I came up with the numbers above, they came from an article written by Dr. Sanjay Gupta M.D. and reported on CNN on October 22, 2010.  You can read the article here:  http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/22/diabetes-numbers-expected-to-triple-by-2050/?hpt=Sbin

If you are not concerned with any of this, you should be.  Just ask any diabetic if the wish they didn’t have the disease.  Instead of waiting to get diabetes and then figuring out how to cope with it, why not take the necessary actions to prevent it in the first place. 

Do you think I’m being an alarmist?  Look at the statistics and look at your friends and neighbours.  Do you remember how many overweight kids were in your classes when you were in school?  Not many.  Take a look today at the kids in schools and your wake up call will be staring you in the face.  Why are parents, who love their kids more than anything else in the world, allowing their kids to proceed along this path?  The answer is that nobody is taking a stand and our governments and physicians are not providing the proper information and education.

If you don’t care enough about your own life to provide your body with the proper fuel that it requires, at least make sure you teach your kids about the importance of a good diet.  Bill Clinton and his doctors are telling us about the ability of the body to prevent and even reverse heart disease, prostate cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and more, if we simply provide our bodies with the what it needs.  It is not rocket science.  We need to eat alkaline foods and beverages instead of acidic foods.

Sang Whang provides the best and most simple explanation of why your body needs alkaline foods and beverages that I have ever read.   Mr. Whang tells us:

“W hen we drink alkaline water with its high pH, the cells in the stomach wall will produce hydrochloric acid to bring the pH of the stomach back down to its natural level.  When the hydrochloric acid is being created, an alkaline buffer in the form of a bicarbonate is released into the blood stream.  It is the bicarbonate that helps our body become alkaline.  If we drink acidic beverages such as soda, the cells in the stomach walls don’t need to produce hydrochloric acid which in turn means that the alkaline bicarbonates are not produced. ”

There is irrefutable evidence that eating properly (an alkaline diet) contributes to good health, and eating badly (an acidic diet) contributes to many health problems.  It is difficult for many of us (me included) to build a diet around alkaline foods (legumes, beans, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruits) when you have spent a lifetime eating processed foods and fast foods, meat, and dairy.   However, it is worth the effort.

If going “cold turkey” on your diet, which is what Bill Clinton recently achieved, seems to difficult, start with small steps.  The best thing you can do for your diet is to cut out the sodas and sugar based drinks.  Then you can slowly start introducing good things and eliminating bad things at your own pace.  You don’t have to do it all in one day unless your health is in a crisis.  

The only liquid your body requires is water.  If you want to help your body become more alkaline, and you struggle with the taste of alkaline foods such as vegetables, drinking alkaline water will help.  The effect on your body in terms of becoming alkaline are the same if you eat an alkaline diet or drink alkaline water. 

I’m not suggesting that you can drink alkaline water and forego a proper diet.  On the contrary, your body requires the nutrients that are found in fruits and vegetables that are not available in alkaline water or in a lot of the food that we eat.   You can change your life by eating and drinking properly.  The solution is at your finger tips…literally.

The opinions in this article are those of the author and are not meant as medical advice.  Always consult with your health care provider regarding health issues.