Harris Zaki Rashid

A recent Men’s Health article on type 2 diabetes had me scramble for my insurance card to make a doctor’s appointment and get my fasting blood sugar levels checked. Not only does it raise concerns about people knowing exactly how to identify the warning signs of pre-diabetes, it also goes into the breakdown of the American Medical Establishment’s ability to correlate disease prevention with nutrition.

See, both my fraternal Grandparents in Malaysia dealt with diabetes, and my father is currently dealing with it. The value of the article is in exposing the falsehood in some common suppositions about body type and risk of diabetes. Given that I stay active and keep my body weight under control, I might tend to think that I’m not a prime candidate for diabetes. Not so. I tend to have an insatiable appetite for sweets, often eat irregularly, often find myself losing focus and even becoming anxious between meals and without a quick snack. These characteristics were also plainly laid out by the article’s author as warning signs for diabetes that is not easily noticed by blood tests and common indicators of the risk for type 2 diabetes.

“Many physicians really don’t have a clue about preventing type-2 diabetes in someone thin like me. My doctor mumbled something about switching from white rice to brown rice and told me to come back in 6 months, even though insulin resistance is a complex metabolic disorder requiring sophisticated, continuous management. What’s more, the typical advice offered makes you wonder if Americans are being given an antidote against or a prescription for the disease. For example, everyone from my doctor to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) tells people with impaired blood sugar, or prediabetes, to make carbohydrate-rich foods such as breads and grains the foundation of their diets. This despite a growing body of evidence that points to carb reduction as the best anti-diabetes strategy. After all, there’s another term for people who are insulin resistant: glucose intolerant. Meaning they don’t respond well to carbohydrates. The higher the dose of carbs, the more problems those carbs cause.”

Back from a trip to Chicago for the Unity Journalists Convention.  First time in Chicago, had really low expectations for some reason (probably stereotypes about the midwest being bland and boring)…Luckily, none of those expectations were met — I had a great time!  Chicago’s dramatic skyline and expansive Lake Michigan struck me as odd.   Major cities to me mean insularity, compacted bodies and streets, limited real estate, air, sky, land.  Not Chicago and Lake Michigan.  Sitting on the Great Lakes water table gave me a sense of calm and clarity, driving up Lake Shore Drive into downtown Chicago.

I stayed with good friend Abel Henry who resides with his fiance in Hyde Park, within a few blocks of Barack Obama’s residence and the location this video was filmed in (will post pics soon).  Took the #4 from Washington Park to McCormick Center (the Convention Center).  The real estate boom in Chicago surprised, kind of like Oakland, but on a much greater level.  Seemed like every block had signs for new “upscale” “luxury” available from the “mid 200’s and up.”  Interesting to see how that plays out with the sagging economy and the brutalized real estate market.  This housing boom will certainly be valuable eventually, however.  As I learned in a panel about Climate Change and Communities of Color, the Great Lakes hold 1/5th of the world fresh water supplies, and sits app. 600 ft. above sea level.  As water sources become scarce and the privaitzation of the water becomes more possible, and when the effects of climate change become more extreme, the historically chocolate citites in the Great Lakes region, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Gary, Indiana, will become some of the most desirable places to live in the world (they also don’t have many natural disasters, if you don’t count frigid winters as a disaster - sometimes I do.)

Can’t wait for my next trip back!

H.

It’s been a minute for Saadiq, good to hear about this.