Eat healthy food, and exercise to avoid diabetes

The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia

As American as apple pie: A treat like this, entered in Saturday’s Summerfest’s pie-baking competition, is great when enjoyed on occasion, but Manny DiBella would argue it shouldn’t be eaten every day. Similarly, Hunter Nauman warns against the dangers of too much soda, and Savannah Everson recommends counteracting obesity with exercise.

To the Editor:

I see a lot of kids making bad food choices during lunch, in restaurants and in my classroom. They are eating the wrong things — chips, pizza, and candy to mention a few examples.

It can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and then probably diabetes. My mom has diabetes and she had a surgery called gastric bypass.

This surgery helps to get rid of your diabetes if you lose the desired amount of weight. If you keep on eating the way you were eating, then you will have a higher risk of ending up with a lot of diseases.

When you have diabetes, that means that your blood-sugar levels are too high. Also, if you are older, obese, have a family history of diabetes, or do not exercise you will have a higher risk of getting diabetes.

The diabetes my mom has is called Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes affects 16 million Americans; 90 percent of diabetes events are Type 2 diabetes.

My mom lost a lot of weight, around 85 pounds, right after the surgery. My mom is now going back to the same old habits and has gained back 15 pounds since the surgery.

I feel like she is gaining the weight because she doesn’t exercise and doesn’t eat healthy foods. These are some of the main reasons why kids get Type 2 diabetes also.

However, it is not all their fault. It is also the food industry’s fault because the industry makes the bad foods that kids and adults eat. I feel that it is just a way to get money by tempting people.

Also, people really like these foods and these foods are easily eaten when they are so tempting. I can see many people getting mad if these choices are taken away. In the long run, removing bad choices helps people out.

To prevent diabetes, I think we should start with making good healthy choices. Some good foods you can eat to be healthy are vegetables, nuts, fruits and no junk food.

Please don’t make the wrong decisions my mom did. I am hoping to have kids change their eating habits.

I also think that we should exercise more to be in the healthy zone. I think that, if you are in the healthy zone, then you think differently, and act differently. People will just feel better!

Manny DiBella

Guilderland

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