World Diabetes Day, Nov. 14, 2016, provides an opportunity to reflect on a dangerous and silent disease that grows without symptoms to the point of causing serious health damage if left untreated. It erodes the arteries from the inside and causes them to thicken and clog, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
The most common form is type 2 diabetes (or food diabetes), where excess blood sugar is brought about by a poor lifestyle: poor eating habits and sedentary living, which in turn cause overweight.
The close correlation between obesity and diabetes is well known: the two new global health emergencies travel in parallel in ‘advanced’ countries and in those where economic development coincides with a bad tendency to eat more, but poorly. Indeed, the triggering effect consequent to unreasonable consumption of foods high in calories and excessive in saturated fats, sugars and sodium (junk food) and – in contrast – the preventive effectiveness of a healthy and balanced lifestyle, such as that typical of the Mediterranean diet, is now evident.
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