Diabetes and Obesity: A Fight We Can Win

Chet Spinner
Contributing writer
Recently, I tried to quit smoking. I put on 50 pounds, and then I decided to smoke again. I just am superficial about my appearance. But, that leaves the extra weight I put on. My doctor suggested that I see a nutritionist because I’m a Type 2 diabetic. What I discovered was fascinating.
    According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Enviornment, Colorado is ranked among the leanest states in the country. But half of Colorado adults are overweight or obese. The proportion of local adults who are obese more than doubled in the last 15 years, from 10.3 percent in 1996 to 21.4 percent in 2010. Obesity also threatens the lives of future generations. Colorado ranks 29th among states in childhood obesity (ages 10-17 years). One in eight children, ages 2-14, in Colorado is obese.
    Obesity increases a person’s risk for several serious illnesses – heart disease and type 2 diabetes, among others. As a result, health care for conditions related to obesity costs Coloradans more than $1.6 billion each year. Children who are obese are more likely to become obese adults, compared to normal-weight children, which also leads to more adults with Type 2 diabetes.
    Fort Lupton is very lucky to have several resources to battle obesity and in turn, Type 2 diabetes. We have the recreation center and the Salud Clinic, which offers advice and supplies to control diabetes. The clinic has on-staff nutritionists who advise diabetics one-on-one and offer a written materials and even supplies diabetics with unused state-of-the-art blood glucose meters. These are necessary to maintain control of diabetes.
    The causes of obesity are complex. They include genetic, metabolic, environmental, cultural and socioeconomic factors. The immediate cause of overweight or obesity for most people is consuming more calories than they expend in physical activity.
    I was schooled in my fight with maintaining my diabetes and obesity by Daphne Zuniga, a patient health advocate at the Brighton Salud Clinic. Ms. Zuniga gave me a very detailed description of how to lose weight and control my diet to lower my blood pressure and maintain my diabetes. She also supplied me with written materials on the subject of a balanced diet and even a day planner to log my meals. She also asked me to start on a campaign of 30-minute walks to get some physical activity. She was very understanding and polite and very knowledgeable about a proper diet and exercise.
    Ms. Zuniga stated that even in Brighton and Fort Lupton, we don’t often utilize resources such as recreational facilities and preventative health care to face the problems in our lives.
    The Colorado Department of Public Health and Enviornment wants to decrease the percentage of Colorado high school students who are overweight or obese to 17 percent. It also wants to decrease the percentage of children aged 2-14 years who are overweight or obese to 20 percent, while decreasing the percentage of Colorado adults who are overweight to 50 percent. This is a goal they’ve set for 2016.
    It’s up to us to fulfill their expectations.