“I believe it is a worse health problem than tobacco,” says Professor Patrick Ball, from Charles Sturt University’s School of Biomedical Sciences, “for the first time in human history, Type 2 Diabetes is more common than Type 1.”
Professor Ball, a leading health researcher and pharmacy educator, says we are losing the battle “because there are so many different facets to the problem” including how modern town planning and technology are contributing to a lack of exercise.
“We have a remote for the telly, electric windows, power steering, dishwashers, and even an electric toothbrush. The cumulative effect can be 500 calories per day. When grandfather set out to do some fencing, he put a shovel and a pickaxe over his shoulder and walked to the site. Taking the quad bike and the petrol posthole borer can mean the difference of 2000 calories per day.”
Professor Ball says despite this, we are eating more than ever. “Our ancestors ate a lot more seafood and around 600 plant species a year where we typically eat less than 50. There is nothing fundamentally unhealthy about eating a McDonald’s hamburger. What is unhealthy is eating little else.” And he says it isn’t called fast food for nothing.
“Try and eat a burger with your hands, and then eat one with a knife and fork. You eat with your hands much more quickly. Then you can reach out for more before your body has even had time to realise it has been fed.
“Chips are advertised as being 85 per cent fat free. Well 15 per cent is actually a very high fat content. You see sweets advertised as 99 per cent fat free, like a solid block of sugar is some sort of health food. How is the general public supposed to makes sense of this? We are getting fatter, but according to government statistics most people see themselves as slim, not overweight.
“Another problem is the amount of readily available sugar. The problem is you feel hungry so you eat a snack bar. An hour and a half later you have a hypo, and you reach for more chocolate. We should be eating complex carbohydrates, which are more in line with how the human body evolved and is designed to work.”
Most worrying of all, say Professor Ball, is the perception of Type 2 Diabetes as just a symptom of ageing that can be managed with medication. “A pharmacist in a rural area told me his clients do not attribute losing limbs and eyesight to diabetes. They have seen it so often in their extended families that they think it is a normal part of the ageing process.
“We have believed for years that Type 2 Diabetes can be medically controlled. But large studies such as the UK Prevention of Diabetes Study show the underlying condition continues to get worse. This is a western lifestyle disease and the only way we are going to fix it is to fundamentally change.”
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