Food for Life: Diabetes Initiative

Diabetes is a major public health problem of epidemic proportions. More than 12% of the U.S. adult population has diabetes, and more than one-quarter of the population over 65 has the disease.1 One  out  of    four  people  with  diabetes  is  unaware  they  have  it,  which  means  they  are  not  being  treated with a healthy diet or medications. Uncontrolled, diabetes can lead to complications from head to toe, including stroke, loss of vision, heart disease, kidney failure, and various problems due  to  nerve  damage  and  circulatory  problems, such as  erectile  dysfunction or  lower-extremity amputation.

An even greater number of people have prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or both), which means they are at high risk for developing diabetes. With prediabetes, blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. There  are  86  million  people  in  the  United  States  who  have  prediabetes,  and  they  are  generally  without  symptoms.  Recent  research  has  shown  that  some  long-term  damage  to  the  body,  especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be occurring during prediabetes. A blood test is  used  to  diagnose  prediabetes.  Between 15% and 30% of people with prediabetes will develop diabetes within five years. Weight loss can prevent or delay this onset.

The Food for Life: Diabetes Initiative is the plant-based nutrition and cooking program for type 2 diabetes  prevention  and  treatment  developed  by  the  Physicians  Committee  for  Responsible  Medicine.  The  intended audience  for  this  program  is  people  with  diabetes,  prediabetes, a family history or risk factors for developing diabetes, and their adult family members. It is also designed to introduce health care professionals to the basics  of  plant-based  nutrition  for preventing and treating diabetes.