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A Doctor and Her Patients on the Front Lines of the Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic
Bantam
January 2006
336 pages ISBN: 0553383795 Paperback (reprint)
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Self-Help Health
Experts now predict that more than one-third of American children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Written by one of the worldโs leading authorities on the link between obesity and diabetes, this passionate, frighteningโbut ultimately hopefulโbook points the way to a solution. To enter Dr. Francine Kaufmanโs clinic is to see the future of America: a 220-pound twelve-year-old boyโฆa 267-pound thirteen-year-old girlโฆtheir concerned but equally overweight parentsโฆthe human faces and human suffering behind the epidemic of type 2 diabetes that threatens to overwhelm our health care system. Once a disease of the elderly, type 2 diabetes now strikes adults in their primeโand, increasingly, children. It has nearly doubled in the last decade. The cause? Our soaring rates of obesity. Diabesity takes us to the front lines of the fight against this preventable but deadly disease. Through vivid patient stories, it explains how excess weight destroys the bodyโs ability to process sugar properlyโwith life-threatening consequences. It shows what happens when the genes that evolved to protect us from famine collide with a sedentary lifestyle that has put bacon cheeseburgers on every corner. And it demonstrates why our usual blame-the-victim response is futile in face of the complex, worldwide forces behind this epidemic. Detailing the tools for change at every levelโfrom families to school systems to governmentโand reporting on innovative programs that are already making a difference, Diabesity offers a compelling action plan for winning this battle.
 Media BuzzEarly Show - June 15, 2006
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