Diabetes in America

Countdown to matching with a political map in 5, 4, 3...

http://img.skitch.com/20101207-dadpmhy579wxeqatbg1fn9sy6f.jpg

Gotta love the south and their deep fried... everything.

That is a fascinating map... So could we conclude that Southern cooking- like all the yummy fried stuff- might have something to do with this?

The South is obvious. Are those dark areas scattered through the Western part of the country Native American reservations?

Wow, the county I live in actually went down to 3.8 in 2008 from 4.4 in 2004. :)

There appears to be a systematic effect in play here. Why are the boundaries of certain states so apparent in the map? Surely the diabetes rates in eastern NM and western TX must be nearly the same. I can't believe the cultural differences between northern Missouri and southern Iowa are that extreme. Could different states report their numbers differently?

xinavera -

As I suspected, a lot of those spots in the mid-west/west are locations of Native American reservations, where diabetes, among other diseases, tend to run rampant.

This link goes to a map with reservations marked, if you'd care to have a look yourself:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Bia-map-indian-reservations-usa.png/800px-Bia-map-indian-reservations-usa.png

Diabetes...it's like an unstoppable rebel force.

In my area, I blame Mountain Dew.

Sigh. Type 1 or Type 2? Type 2 for sure, but the public won't know that.

I wish they would just rename Type 1, "broken pancreas disease" or something, anything, to differentiate it from type 2 so that when I say "I have type 1 diabetes" I don't have to then explain why I'm not obese.

It correlates closely to the US obesity map: Colorado thinnest, Missisippi fattest. http://calorielab.com/news/2010/06/28/fattest-states-2010/

Of course, it's not really a surprise to anyone who knows the close link between obesity and diabetes.

Sweet Tea and Pie

Show someone an effect and he will invent a cause.

Actually, a very revealing map shows the rate of POVERTY in the USA (google "poverty in USA map" images). Such maps are almost identical to this one.

I think the true cause of both diabetes and obesity is that poor people can't afford good food like meat and fresh vegetables, and have to get by on starchy cheap food like spaghetti, potatoes, and bread.

The map, effectively, shows the distribution of social and economic inequality, not disease.

Alejo Hausner

has been an interesting post to follow comments on. I'd just like to say that I don't buy into the social & economic inequality thing- since when does being poor mean you have to eat junk- specifically enough of the stuff to get Type II diabetes? Self control will have a lot to do with it, as will long established eating (and drinking- hello Mountain Dew!) habits. I grew up pretty poor but we didn't gorge ourselves on the stuff that causes obesity and increases your risk for diabetes. That's just a whole lot of 'all-the-bad-stuff-that-happens-to-me-is-not-my-fault-it's-yours'

Hedwig.. whether you buy into it or not, it's very real. Eating healthy food is expensive and definitely not as easy to do when you're living in poverty.

I'll give you that to an extent-but when you see poor families always in new and fashionable clothes, using really nice cellphones and sucking down soda like it's their life's blood? Then you realize that for some there may be no choice-but for many, it's a result of extremely skewed priorities.

Good Morning. Actually I'm not interested in the article. Because I don't know your language. I just looking around some blogs, seems a pretty nice platform you are using. I'm currently using Wordpress for a few of my sites but looking to change one of them over to a platform similar to yours as a trial run. Anything in particular you would recommend about it?