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| View Larger Image | Diabesity: A Doctor and Her Patients on the Front Lines of the Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic
by Francine R. Kaufman MD
| | List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $10.20 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 532181 | | Studio: | Bantam | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 336 | | Publication Date: | January 31, 2006 | | Publisher: | Bantam |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Experts now predict that more than one-third of American children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Written by one of the world’s leading authorities on the link between obesity and diabetes, this passionate, frightening–but ultimately hopeful–book points the way to a solution.
To enter Dr. Francine Kaufman’s clinic is to see the future of America: a 220-pound twelve-year-old boy…a 267-pound thirteen-year-old girl…their concerned but equally overweight parents…the human faces and human suffering behind the epidemic of type 2 diabetes that threatens to overwhelm our health care system. Once a disease of the elderly, type 2 diabetes now strikes adults in their prime–and, increasingly, children. It has nearly doubled in the last decade. The cause? Our soaring rates of obesity.
Diabesity takes us to the front lines of the fight against this preventable but deadly disease. Through vivid patient stories, it explains how excess weight destroys the body’s ability to process sugar properly–with life-threatening consequences. It shows what happens when the genes that evolved to protect us from famine collide with a sedentary lifestyle that has put bacon cheeseburgers on every corner. And it demonstrates why our usual blame-the-victim response is futile in face of the complex, worldwide forces behind this epidemic.
Detailing the tools for change at every level–from families to school systems to government–and reporting on innovative programs that are already making a difference, Diabesity offers a compelling action plan for winning this battle.
From the Hardcover edition. |
Amazon.com
Just as Fast Food Nation appalled thousands of readers into boycotting McDonalds and its ilk, one can hope that Diabesity might galvanize the public to help prevent a mind-bogglingly huge epidemic from snowballing. Type II diabetes used to be a disease of the elderly; in 1997, the American Diabetes Association decided to do away with the term "adult-onset diabetes," as it increasingly appeared in middle-aged patients, young adults, and teens. It's now appearing in obese children, and affects nearly 10 percent of the American population;[p. 13] what's most unbelievable is that its prevalence nearly doubled between 1990 and 2002, and shows no signs of abating, as every overweight American--that's 64 percent of the population--is at elevated risk. Diabesity will likely petrify anyone recently diagnosed with diabetes into scrupulously monitoring their blood-sugar level, with frightening stories of blindness, heart attacks, kidney failure, gangrene, impotence in males, and infertility in females, and other side effects from diabetics' elevated blood sugar. Dr. Kaufman gets a little full of herself when she describes audiences—from school boards to World Health Organization assemblies—going wild after her speeches on diabetes. But as a pediatric endocrinologist since the 1970s, she's seen first-hand the rise of the diabetes epidemic, with comatose children appearing in her Los Angeles emergency room with blood-sugar levels 10 times what's considered healthy, so high that they can't be read with present-day equipment. Curiously absent in Diabesity is any mention of the potential link between infant formula and the later development of diabetes. But Kaufman wins points for chronicling the fight to have L.A. ban soda sales in the schools. ("Sodas are the leading source of added sugar in children's diets.") Her descriptions of the cultural and economic differences among the diabetes epidemics in China, India, and Ecuador are also intriguing. The book should be considered essential for parents, teachers, and day-care providers; it's grim reading, but that's a small sacrifice compared to a life being cut short 20 years by a largely preventable disease. --Erica Jorgensen |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 14 reviews)
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Excellent information 
My doctor recommended this book. It is excellent. Very well written and very informative. Everyone who has been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes or if you have child that runs the risk of developing diabetes needs to read this book.
July 30, 2007 | |
Everybody ought to know
Dr. Kaufman has opened my eyes and given lots of hope to people who thought there was no way out of this horrendous cycle which eventually led to amputation and multiple declines until an early death culminated the misery. She certainly has a heart toward her fellowman to bring to light in such a way that the layman can understand the intricate workings of our bodies and how to properly take care of our health. Three cheers for her and her family and all the compassion they have shown!!! This book should be mandatory reading for all humans.
August 31, 2006 | |
Misleading, low on facts and exploitive 
This poorly written and researched book is typical of the "hype" that is continually fed to the American public -- EVERYTHING is a crisis! EVERYTHING (from terrorism to the food we eat) is an epidemic! We are bad, and we need to change our behavior -- FAST, or some terrible disaster will befall us.
If you study the history of fads in the US, you find a disturbing trend to demonize food, or to believe that if you eat a certain way (all meat, no meat, vegan, low carbs, no carbs, etc.), then all will be well...you will live forever and your life will be perfect.
There is also an alarming tendency to blame people for their own health problems. It is rare to hear anyone be so heartless and cruel as to blame someone for getting cancer, but just listen to the self-righteous lecturing when author Francine Kaufman blames the overweight for developing diabetes!
I write this as someone who has so much diabetes in her family, that almost every relative of mine has this disease...at least 90%. So I take it very seriously, read everything I can on the illness and try to live as healthy a lifestyle as I can. But -- it's still an illness. My family history shows that it is clearly HEREDITARY, and not entirely due to lifestyle. A number of my family members who became diabetic (Type 2) were NOT obese...some were slightly overweight and others actually slim.
One thing utterly ignored by this poorly researched book is that slim people can and do develope Type II diabetes, especially with age. And that the majority of overweight individuals do NOT have diabetes.
There is obviously a link between Type II diabetes and extra weight, but the most advanced research indicates that diabetes is a far more complex disease than people previously thought....the failure of the bodies complex system of managing carbs and sugars, insulin, etc. begins years before diabetes is diagnosable. I believe, along with many researchers, that it is this long period of insulin surges that causes vulnerable individuals with a genetic pre-disposition to have huge appetites and overeat, thus becoming overweight. The overweight may be a signal that something is indeed wrong metabolically with an individual, and should be managed. However, blaming the patient (i.e., he or she is a "fat pig" and needs to deny themselves every kind of good tasting food, plus do punishing excercise) is wrong and is guaranteed to fail, as is ANY medical diagnosis that is based on blame and moral judgement, instead of science.
The biggest problem fueling the "diabetes" crisis is that 45 million Americans do not have access to health insurance, and therefore, have no medical care of any kind. This means they can't have the checkups, diagnosis, insulin, diabetes monitors, etc. that are essential to treating the disease...hence, their disease goes unchecked until it becomes a life-threatening crisis. This is intolerable in a civilized nation! This is the problem we need to be addressing, not blaming people and trying to shame them for having an illness.
I am heartily sick and tired of this kind of book, which exploits the sick and suffering of human beings, just to sell copies and comes up with "cute" names like "Diabesity" to describe serious medical conditions.
If you are interested in genuine diabetes research on the cutting edge, or having serious concerns about yourself or a family member in this regard, please read some better researched and less commercial books on this subject.
November 21, 2005 | |
It will scare the French fries right out of you...
Two months ago I was told by my doc that a recent blood test showed me to be on the edge of diabetes. He suggested that I give up red meat, egg yolks, fried foods and dairy products, and eat more fruits, vegetables and salads, using soy milk for protein, etc. I did so, and last week my test results showed a retreat from the danger zone for blood sugar, and a loss of eight pounds. So I've been told to stay the course with the new eating and add some exercise. I am 60, only five-foot-seven, and weighed 240 pounds when the bad blood was sucked from my arm on June 28th. Although I am in no danger of needing insulin injections soon, as an obese white male of a certain age and sedentary habits, I am at high risk for this terrible disease of diabetes. So I got this book. It is frightening, but well-written, and well-documented, by an M.D. who really knows her stuff. After reading it, I am more afraid for my wife, adult children, and teenage daughter than for myself. If you want a book that might really push you into better eating and more activity by explaining the realities of living with diabetes, get this one.
September 21, 2005 | |
Chapters outline the condition and use patient stories to explain consequences
There's a firm connection between obesity and diabetes resulting in the current epidemic levels of diabetes in America, and Dr. Kaufman, as past president of the American Diabetes Association, is in the perfect position to identify and comment upon this connection in Diabesity: The Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic That Threatens America--And What We Must Do To Stop It. Dr. Kaufman sees vastly overweight children and dangerous new connections between obesity and Type 2 diabetes: chapters outline the condition and use patient stories to explain consequences.
August 07, 2005 | |
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