DiabetesJoin now to read essay DiabetesThe twelve o’clock lunch bell sounds in a high pitch but is quickly drowned out by the 4th grade students getting out of their desk and hustling to the front of the class room talking loudly about what they are going to do at recess. As the students file out of the classroom one young boy remains standing at the teacher’s desk. His name is Jack. As he waits impatiently for his teacher, he rips off the Harry Potter band-aid on his left hand middle finger tosses it in the garbage and says “Score!” His teacher finally walks back into the classroom and ushers him out the door and they head down the hallway. This has been Jack’s routine everyday since he has been in elementary school. His teacher drops him off at the nurse’s office and they part ways for lunch. Although Jack only spends a few minutes in the nurse’s office, it seems like hours everyday. He is always late to lunch never getting to pick who he sits next to because Jack has diabetes. Everyday when Jack is at school he has to go to the nurse’s office before lunch to check his blood sugar and to give himself an insulin shot. Some days when he is not feeling well he has to go up to the teacher in the middle of class and ask her for a candy bar or go to go to the nurse. While most of the other students do not understand why Jack gets candy from his teacher or is allowed to go to the nurse so often, Jack knows that having to eat a candy bar in front of his classmate is not fun at all. Jack does not like having diabetes, but after having it for 7 years of having it, he knows that it is part of his life, and it is what makes him unique. Much like Jack more than 125,000 American children have a similar lifestyle of being a Type I diabetic (MacDougall n.p.).
The scientific name for diabetes is Diabetes Mellitus Diabetes is a chronic disease that both adults and children can get at anytime. In simplest terms diabetes is disease that does not allow your body to use the foods that you consume for energy. Energy is something that is needed in everything that humans do from thinking to sleeping. Humans get their energy from the various foods that they ingest, which are eventually broken down in the digestive system. After food is broken down insulin is used to convert the food to energy. People with diabetes do not have enough insulin or their body does not use their insulin correctly; therefore diabetics can not get any or enough energy without the help of insulin.
An estimated 10.3 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, and an additional 5.4 million are estimated to have the disease unknowingly (Jefferson n.p.). The two types of diabetes that are most common are Type I and Type II diabetes. Type I diabetes is commonly found in children and young adults, whereas Type II is more common in older adults. But there are cases where children get Type II and adults get type I. Although Type II is more common, this paper will discuss how Type I diabetes effects children.
Type I diabetes is an extremely serious disease because it makes individuals dependent on insulin to survive. Only a slim percentage of the estimated total of individuals with diabetes have Type I diabetes, 1.7 million people (MacDougall n.p.). Type I diabetes is a very serious disease that needs to be treated correctly and promptly to obtain a healthy lifestyle. “Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas” (MacDougall n.p.). A person’s body who is a Type I diabetic does not allow the body to produce insulin which is required to use the sugars from the foods they eat. In particular, insulin is required for the body to use glucose which is found in most foods as a simple sugar after it is broken down in the digestive system. Without insulin a body cannot absorb these essential sugars which are necessary to live. If a body does not have insulin it will starve to death (MacDougall n.p.). That is why people with Type I diabetes must inject themselves with insulin, so they can obtain a normal, healthy life.
As it was stated before, more that 125,000 children in the United States have Type I diabetes, and 13,000 additional cases are found each year. That is an average of 35 children being diagnosed daily! (Type I… n.p.). Formerly called Juvenile Diabetes, Type I diabetes strikes children suddenly. It is unknown of its exact cause(s) but scientists believe that children diagnosed with the disease have a genetic predisposition to it and they believe that environmental triggers factor in also (MacDougal n.p.). When a child is diagnosed with diabetes there are often very clear signs leading to the diagnostic from classic symptoms: excessive thirst, excessive urination, excessive hunger, weight loss, fatigue, fatigue, blurred vision, high blood sugar level, and sugar in the urine (Kids… n.p.). These are serious symptoms, which need to be taken seriously, and a
tentative cure and treatment process can be done with the right food, water, sleep, healthy sleep and medication. This has many disadvantages. The food we live off of goes to a significant amount of our nutritional needs, like protein, fats and carbohydrate. But it also also can increase the risk of cancer and diabetes, especially if given too much protein. And we need to make sure there is adequate supply of nutritious (mostly fruits) to meet all our needs, so it’s not just the food that goes into your system. Our bodies have tons of nutrients, so we need to ensure all our body’s nutrients meet our needs. And, if we are getting too many foods, it could be that there is a lack of suitable, wholesome ones in our diet. And the protein is also at a critical point, there is a lot of protein in our bodies, so all our protein needs are met. This means that there is likely a risk of getting a high (but not high enough) amount of protein in your body when you get too many foods. But, if we are feeding children, we have been warned that if they keep eating too much, they will get diabetes. And that is a really significant problem for kids and the type of disease they suffer!
What Do Children Eat?
When we say “good for kids” or “safe for children”, it usually means something to look at when it comes to nutrition, which usually includes dietary guidelines and diet advice, guidelines on how quickly a child should eat. However… we don’t really use “good for kids” anymore. It’s simply an outdated, overused term. Our kids will have to make their own decisions as to what they like, what they don’t like, on how and where to eat, and all that. Children are still very much at risk from “bad” foods and it’s easy to tell.
Kids can eat a little more. It’s just as important that those that aren’t as happy as they might be to eat a bit are eating enough. But, children are much less likely to choose the correct foods on a budget. We are all trying to be very healthy as children, that is, to try everything you can to reduce all the other health issues related to kids. But… we need to make kids aware of the food we are eating. Many food companies and health food manufacturers offer various solutions to provide kids with the best foods on the market. One such solution is to introduce free-range chicken. Many supermarkets (such as Wendy’s ) continue to serve this free-range chicken for their children. But, many health food companies are not doing this effectively. Some of them, like Kroger (which I have also found great, but unfortunately it seems very much an afterthought in my life) offer no-contact cooking services. In order to do so, they have set up separate checkout centers where they don’t usually sell or use any type of products to help children find those free range ingredients and to serve them. But, those are not all free range products. But many of them are low cost low quality, which is probably why a parent (especially a parent who hasn’t seen many of their children eat healthy meals) will sometimes feel compelled to buy one. In short, I know how hard it is to find low