Researchers have published a study in the July issue of Environmental Health Perspectives that is supposed to link chemicals in the environment to diabetes. Basically, DDT that remains in the environment after over 35 years off the market, is causing some people to be more likely to develop diabetes. Here is what they did: Starting in the early 1990’s, a group of researchers followed a group of folks in and around the Great Lakes area-fishermen and boat captains and the like who would have eaten fish that were tainted with what are called Persistent Organic Pollutants, which are chemicals that remain in the environment for a long, long time and can become more and more consentrated as it is metabolized and cycled UP the food chain. While the study did not show a relation between quantity of fish consumed and diabetes, it did show that the higher the concentration of DDE in the subject (that is, the chemical produced in the body as it metabolizes DDT, the MORE LIKELY the risk of developing diabetes. BOTTOM LINE—eat organic, and diabetes is NOT your fault.

BULL SHIT!!

I appreciate the information that this article is putting forth—that is that there are harmful things in the environment that can cause us harm and are deleterious to our health. This I get; but something is nagging at me and I just can’t shake it. The article is really just an advertisement for the organic initiative. What it is doing is saying that there are bad things coming out of commercial farms and fisheries and hatcheries and all of the other –ies, thing that can cause you harm, so why not try OUR products. I can respect this. Fear is what motivates ALL advertising, be it fear of getting sick, fear of a particular type of “unfreshness”, fear of not being cool, or hip or with it, even fear of not fully understanding the ad itself (this is for all of you who bought Obsession by Calvin Klein: you did NOT get those ads and you know it!). But what is more odious is beneath the surface, this article was stating that diabetes is no longer your fault.

A doctor was quoted in the article as saying, “Most people have not thought of diabetes as a disease related to environmental exposure," he said, "and these studies show that it is.” If I am not mistaken, the article does not say that diabetes is emphatically linked to the environment. This doctor, who was not part of the study, is sensationalizing the issue. While there are certain things out of peoples control when it comes to diabetes, like genetics, the blame, for the most part, falls into the lap of the person suffering from diabetes. It is easier to say that it is the environment’s fault rather than my own. It is easier to blame it on the rain that to put down the fork. It is just easier. Individually, we are not the cause of environmental deterioration, but as a group, we are. The group, though, is not the reason you lost a toe or get irritable in the afternoons because of insulin shock. The business of America is no longer business it is blaming others for giving us the business. And I really hate that.

I’m just saying. . .