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As much as I love to joke around, I read a report the other day that flat-out shook me like a squirrel on a power line. And while I firmly believe humor is nature’s duct tape—holding us together when everything else is falling apart—sometimes, you’ve just got to get serious.
The report said that in the U.S., of the top ten medications most commonly prescribed, five are diabetes treatments. Five! Half the list! (Although, let’s be honest, a couple of those drugs have moonlighted as weight-loss celebrities.) It didn’t divide them by diabetes type, but when you consider that being overweight, living a couch-potato lifestyle, and eating diets high in saturated fats and refined carbs are among the culprits… well… let’s just say that a whole lot of “standard American food” is basically setting mousetraps and sprinkling cheese on them.
Add in unlucky genetics, and you’ve got a recipe for trouble—one casserole nobody wants to pass around at the potluck.
So, I am going to learn to read those labels if it kills me (no pun intended… okay, maybe a little one). And we’re going to try to eat fresh whenever possible. Our oversized pantry here at the cottage is about to start shedding its collection of cans, boxes, and mystery packages I swear have been there since the Bush administration. We ARE going to buy more veggies and fruits from the local farmers market—and maybe even learn what half of them are.
Because at this stage in life, I’d rather spend my time exploring the ridge, laughing with Willie, and annoying my doctor with “Look! My numbers went down!”—instead of relying on a pharmacy shelf that reads like a Top 40 countdown of metabolic mayhem.