Ima Loozer

My cousin Bea usually writes this column, but she has let me do it this month. She doesn’t agree with what I am about to say — some of it, anyway.

We do agree that it’s never okay to blame the victim. And we do agree that obesity is a huge problem in this country.

We both read the article that said nearly half the adults in this country have either pre-diabetes or diabetes. That means the 12.3 percent of our people with diabetes are more likely to have a heart attack or other disease as well as side effects of diabetes like blindness or amputation. And the 37 percent who are pre-diabetic are well on their way. The CDC says that up to 30 percent of people with pre-diabetes develop Type 2 diabetes within five years.

Only 10 years ago 27 percent were in the pre-diabetic boat. From 27 percent to 37 percent is quite a leap. And do you know how many people with pre-diabetes know they have it? Less than 10 percent of the 86 million afflicted adults know they have pre-diabetes.

But it works both ways. When my friend Fran and I were in another weight loss group together, she lost around 25 pounds, mainly because of a healthy diet. Guess what! Her husband Bill’s doctor noticed improvement in Bill’s blood sugar level so reduced his medication. I think we can guess how that happened.

My take on this is that we’re not really victims of obesity. Many events in our past got us to this point so that many of us feel like we’re stuck with it, as if we’re unable to move on or change. I can’t blame others for obesity or any related disease, but I do think it’s a good idea to do what we can about our food intake and activity level.

I think cousin Bea would say I am blaming the victim. Still, she would probably agree that getting and giving support in our shared challenge to lose weight would help us as individuals and would save our health care system billions of dollars. Golden Goalies can help with weight loss and probably with lowering of blood sugar level. We don’t know what challenges others face, so we leave blame at the door.

Join us this Saturday morning for our regular meeting. Weigh-in is between 7:00-7:45 a.m. in the Mirror Room of Sun Lakes Country Club. The meeting starts after weigh-in next door in the Friendship Room. Contact Rita at 895-2559 for more information.