Monday, October 8, 2007

So Sick.

I am so sick of the misinformation television provides to people who already know little or nothing about diabetes in general. Today as I sat down with my mom to watch an Oprah show about getting your kids to eat healthy, I was interested. By the end of the show I was just pissed. The part about the food was great. Then Dr. Oz comes out and starts talking about the fact that this generation will be the first generation to not out live their parents. He states obesity as the cause, then moves on to the fact that, "50% of Latino kids and 40% of Black kids will develop diabetes in their lifetime". Gee thanks Dr. Oz but what type of diabetes? Does the average American even know there are 2 types? I know he is talking about Type 2, but you don't get to a Type 2 with there being a Type 1 preceeding it. If you just say diabetes I know you aren't talking about me or the other 10% of diabetics who have Type 1, but the rest of America probably doesn't. When you tell America that "kids" are going to develop diabetes TELL THEM TYPE 2! I was a kid that developed diabetes, TYPE 1 DIABETES! My parents didn't feed me too much candy, fatty foods, cupcakes, junk food, or anything else you want to blame for diabetes (TYPE 2). I was a healthy kid who got sick, who got so thin not fat. So please do NOT group me in with that category of over eating American kids. Do NOT blame my parents for feeding me the wrong thing. Do NOT play the food police for me. I didn't do anything to cause this. Go learn about the TWO types of diabetes, before you open your mouth to tell me all the things that I can do to change this, to make it go away, to loose the weight, what could have been done to prevent it. Is it that hard to just say Type 1 or 2 Diabetes?

(I have already sent Oprah.com a few angry messages about this.)
(If you commented on my last 2 posts, my replies are in the comments of those posts.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree. What makes me even crazier is when science magazines fail to differentiate! Both Science News and Discover have published articles about a possible cure for diabetes and a diabetes epidemic, without stating type 2! I found a tiny reference to type 2 at the very end of the articles.

I wish there was better education, and better public knowledge.

Donna said...

It's so irritating when they air or publish this stuff. I guess it just goes to show that you can't believe everything you see on TV. And I usually trust Oprah to give us the right information, too. I'm disappointed...

Minnesota Nice said...

Dr Oz is probably more concerned with how his hair looks or how white his teeth are.
There is a lot of misinformation out there and not much of a solution.
I know that we, as individual can spread the word, but, as Donna said, 'don't believe everthing you see on tv"........ugh

Scott S said...

This is a constant source of irritation for many of us T1's, mainly because there is always another statement that usually accompanies these statements about poor eating habits, lack of exercise or some suggestion that diabetes is a self-inflicted condition. If anyone knows how I could have prevented type 1 as a 7-year old child, they failed to share that brilliant info. with my parents!!

Cara said...

AMEN!!! :)

Anonymous said...

I watched this episode too and got just as angry!!!!! As you said, I wish more of an effort was made to educate the general public.. sure us type 1's know the difference but the rest of the world might go on thinking that anyone with diabetes is at fault for getting the disease. This is always so frustrating!

Jillian said...

I am so glad that it is not just me that feels this way. I totally get the fact that Type 2 Diabetes is a huge problem, but the media needs to be more sensitive to the fact that there are 2 types of diabetes!