Two worrisome statistics

1) According to the Centers for Disease Control, eight percent of the US population (24 million) have diabetes, up 3 million from just two years ago, and 57 million have blood sugar abnormalities.

2) One-third of the US population has hypertension and are becoming increasingly resistant to drugs that lower it, according to the American Heart Association. The rise in drug resistance is due to the hypertensive patients being sicker to begin with and require more drugs at greater dosages.

Bonnie - as a public health educator, these statistics are very disappointing. From a dietary perspective, one can postulate that because of the increase in diabetes cases from 2005-2007, the revised 2005 Dietary Guidelines and Food Pyramid should be considered a failure. These guidelines increased grain and dairy servings while ignoring protein.

The hypertension stat is no surprise because of the amount of stress the average American endures. When you complement the stress with a Western-style diet and ever-growing environmental toxic exposure, you have the perfect storm for hypertension.