Starvation in midst of plenty Essay -- Health, Diseases, Diabetes

â€Å"Starvation in midst of plenty† is a phrase, often used to describe diabetes. This disease became so widespread and so â€Å"important in its health complications that November 14th has been declared as World Diabetes Day† (Blumer, Rubin, 2009). One of the most common forms of diabetes is Type 2 diabetes or non-insulin dependent Diabetes. More than nine million Canadians live with diabetes or prediabetes according to statistics. Although diabetes has become prevalent in all communities across Canada, the problem has reached an epidemic level among Aboriginal people (Blumer, Rubin, 2009). They have a rate three to five times higher than that of other Canadians (Health Canada). Regarding the high-risk factors as obesity, low level of physical activity, and an unhealthy eating pattern among Aboriginal people, diabetes is a very big concern. Firstly, obese people are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. Approximately 200 years ago, before their first meeting with the Europeans, the Aboriginals enjoyed a simple and healthy lifestyle. They lived nomadically, eating â€Å"seasonal foods native to Canada† (Rosenthal, 2009). Their immune system has built a protective mechanism able to adjust to non-consistent food supply in such a way they used carbohydrates in a very efficient way metabolically (Blumer, Rubin, 2009). This mechanism is called â€Å"the thrifty gene†. Unfortunately, after being introduced a diet high in calories and saturated fat they started to accumulate the extra calories as fat which lead to obesity. Also, traditional foods such as â€Å"wild game, fish, root vegetables, fruit, whale meat, and blubber†, became unavailable during the years due to pollution of water (Rosenthal, 2009). Furthermore, their healthy food was replaced with ... ... professionals try to â€Å"marry the West and North† (Rosenthal, 2009) trying to suit diet and activity to the cultural environment of Aboriginal communities. In conclusion, even though the rate of diabetes is very high all over Canada, Aboriginal people are more endangered, because of their lifestyle. It is proved that diabetes can cause long term complications like heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease etc. The best ways to avoid these diseases are to prevent diabetes by fighting the risk factors through education. Maybe if the programs are more suited to the Aboriginal tradition and culture the effect would be obvious. Fortunately, the gap created between West and North due to cultural and language barriers start to fill up slowly. It is assigned that the rate of diabetes can decrease in the future among Aboriginal people.