My H2B (that's Hubby-to-Be in Bridespeak) likes to watch ABC for some reason that I can't quite grasp. I strongly suspect he's under the illusion that they're more truthful. Or he just likes watching old people talk in monotone, maybe its a soothing thing to him.
Yesterday, he put on ABC as he does in the middle of the day on a weekend. They advertised a segment to appear last night on diabetes and a 'miracle cure'. My spidey sense was tingling, alarm bells were ringing and the word poppycock flashed into my mind in Neon letters.
So at 9.30pm last night I settled down with a big bowl of popcorn, prepared for some entertaining comedy. I lie. I didn't have popcorn, can't eat the stuff because it tops out my 'reasons why I'm Hypo' list.
As predicted, ABC had no idea what they were prattling on about. Everyone listen up, Blueberry Tea is gonna kick your diabetes into gear. That's actually a new one. Hallelujah we are saved!! The Menzies institute has your back. If you look up the Menzies institute and search for their diabetes research you are met with this very succinct and to the point description of how they interpret diabetes: 'Diabetes is a disease'. Their words radiate such a strong understanding of my medical condition, so I'm definitely going to just shut up now and drink the blueberry tea.
Sorry I lie again. Seems to be a problem with me tonight. I'm not going to drink the blueberry tea. Because blueberry tea is not going to cure or help my Type 1 Diabetes, as ABC so informs me: "A herbal tea with blueberry as its base has attracted the attention of medical researchers at the Menzies Institute for its potential to reduce insulin dependence in diabetics."
Not only are they blanketing all types of diabetes again, but they specifically mention insulin dependence, which lends people to relate the report more towards people with Type 1 Diabetes. The article is based off a single-person case study - an elderly Type 2 patient on insulin. They also talk to a nutritionist who says she has done some trials of her own and that those who drank the tea had better glycaemic control. I'm no medical officer, but if patients have bothered to go to a nutritionist, it is likely that they have made other significant changes to their dietary habits alongside drinking the tea that would aid glycaemic control.
How does this miracle cure work, you ask? A senior researcher has the very simple answer: "The tea has enabled that hormone, insulin, to improve glucose uptake into muscle and by doing that it lowers blood glucose levels and it does that by stimulating blood flow,". How amazing, so does Viagra. Basically, if the ABC are saying a healthy lifestyle will help to aid control in diabetes, then the article is not really telling us anything we don't already know.
As a person with Type 1 Diabetes I only have 1 point to make really. Don't drink the tea. Well you can, but only drink it because you like to drink tea. Don't stop taking your insulin. We're called insulin dependent for a reason. Because our insulin-producing beta cells are effectively dead. You can test it out if you want - go dig up your poor old dead bunny Flopsy from the garden and give her a hit of this so-called good stuff. Chances are, if Flopsy doesn't come back to life spontaneously, neither will your beta cells.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Friday, 20 February 2015
#effyourhealthstandards
Tess Munster somehow made it back to my newsfeed again today. I say again, because she's been there a good part of the past month.
For those who haven't a clue who I'm talking about, Tess Munster is a plus size model who recently got a large modelling contract.
I have no issues with plus size models. I think for the majority of the time, the term plus size is wildly inaccurate, because it basically just means 'average sized human being'. I don't own any fashion magazines and I have no idea what a Dolce and Gabbana is. I don't know fashion. I don't look at fashion. I shop at K-mart. That stuff is cheap and it fits over my butt. Like actually fits over it.
Kmart are pretty good on their advertising. I generally just see healthy looking men and women in their catalogues. In the last catalogue, a model had arm fat. And that's who we should be seeing. HEALTHY men and women in advertising.
Tess Munster is anything but healthy. I do have to give her some props. She is body confident.
Unfortunately she promotes a lifestyle to vulnerable girls who aren't body confident that tells them it's ok to become morbidly obese. She isn't someone who I would want an impressionable young teen to look up to. Neither are stick thin models, but they don't make my newsfeed.
Tess had a lot to do with #effyourbeautystandards. Thats a great movement. But she may as well add #effyourhealthstandards #dieyoung.
I have Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune condition that I could not have prevented no matter how hard I exercised or how well I ate. It hurts me so much to see people advocating for unhealthy lifestyle choices in the way that Tess Munster does. #effyourbeautystandards isn't about telling the media that we don't have to be stick thin, with huge boobs to be attractive anymore. It's now about my life, my body, I'll do what I want and what the hell is a carrot?
Tess Munster's social media pages makes being unhealthy look desirable. She's glamorous, eats what she wants wihtout caring and travels the world. What she isn't sharing on her facebook, or instagram or whatever it is kids are logging into and looking at these days, is the statistics on health issues from morbid obesity. She isn't sharing when her doctors warn her about Type 2 Diabetes, or heart diseae, or cancer. She doesn't share her BMI, or pictures of small cuts that take twice as long to heal with poor circulation. She isn't able to take a picture of her insides and share her possibly hardened areries, or struggling organs with you. She doesn't tell you how long it takes her to walk up a set of stairs, or how much harder she has to breathe to do that.
She's a model. Hello photoshop. I wear a size 12 and I have cellulite galore. And stretch marks. And my curves are sometimes just lumps of fat and not really curves. Tess Munster does not appear to have these. Her curves are smooth, she has no cellulite and where are the stretch marks? At size 22, she has these. What happened to #effyourbeautystandards?
I wish I could tell her exactly how much she does not want Type 2 Diabetes. Because it's not glamourous. Finding blood all over your hands/legs/face 5 minutes after a finger-prick isn't glamourous. Wincing in pain during needle isn't a great model face. Having to plan your life to a tee to include your diabetes would not make the jet-setting life very easy, I would imagine. It also might be hard to model with no legs. Just saying, as someone who has this secret fear about their diabetes.
I don't wish Tess ill. I don't hate Tess. I just think that Tess should appreciate that as someone who has such a large audience, she should take responsibility of that and pop up a picture of a healthy meal every so often. Or snap a pic mid-work out. Encourage people that you can still #effyourbeautystandards whilst being healthy, instead of using #effyourbeautfystandards to justify an unhealthy lifestyle.
For those who haven't a clue who I'm talking about, Tess Munster is a plus size model who recently got a large modelling contract.
I have no issues with plus size models. I think for the majority of the time, the term plus size is wildly inaccurate, because it basically just means 'average sized human being'. I don't own any fashion magazines and I have no idea what a Dolce and Gabbana is. I don't know fashion. I don't look at fashion. I shop at K-mart. That stuff is cheap and it fits over my butt. Like actually fits over it.
Kmart are pretty good on their advertising. I generally just see healthy looking men and women in their catalogues. In the last catalogue, a model had arm fat. And that's who we should be seeing. HEALTHY men and women in advertising.
Tess Munster is anything but healthy. I do have to give her some props. She is body confident.
Unfortunately she promotes a lifestyle to vulnerable girls who aren't body confident that tells them it's ok to become morbidly obese. She isn't someone who I would want an impressionable young teen to look up to. Neither are stick thin models, but they don't make my newsfeed.
Tess had a lot to do with #effyourbeautystandards. Thats a great movement. But she may as well add #effyourhealthstandards #dieyoung.
I have Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune condition that I could not have prevented no matter how hard I exercised or how well I ate. It hurts me so much to see people advocating for unhealthy lifestyle choices in the way that Tess Munster does. #effyourbeautystandards isn't about telling the media that we don't have to be stick thin, with huge boobs to be attractive anymore. It's now about my life, my body, I'll do what I want and what the hell is a carrot?
Tess Munster's social media pages makes being unhealthy look desirable. She's glamorous, eats what she wants wihtout caring and travels the world. What she isn't sharing on her facebook, or instagram or whatever it is kids are logging into and looking at these days, is the statistics on health issues from morbid obesity. She isn't sharing when her doctors warn her about Type 2 Diabetes, or heart diseae, or cancer. She doesn't share her BMI, or pictures of small cuts that take twice as long to heal with poor circulation. She isn't able to take a picture of her insides and share her possibly hardened areries, or struggling organs with you. She doesn't tell you how long it takes her to walk up a set of stairs, or how much harder she has to breathe to do that.
She's a model. Hello photoshop. I wear a size 12 and I have cellulite galore. And stretch marks. And my curves are sometimes just lumps of fat and not really curves. Tess Munster does not appear to have these. Her curves are smooth, she has no cellulite and where are the stretch marks? At size 22, she has these. What happened to #effyourbeautystandards?
I wish I could tell her exactly how much she does not want Type 2 Diabetes. Because it's not glamourous. Finding blood all over your hands/legs/face 5 minutes after a finger-prick isn't glamourous. Wincing in pain during needle isn't a great model face. Having to plan your life to a tee to include your diabetes would not make the jet-setting life very easy, I would imagine. It also might be hard to model with no legs. Just saying, as someone who has this secret fear about their diabetes.
I don't wish Tess ill. I don't hate Tess. I just think that Tess should appreciate that as someone who has such a large audience, she should take responsibility of that and pop up a picture of a healthy meal every so often. Or snap a pic mid-work out. Encourage people that you can still #effyourbeautystandards whilst being healthy, instead of using #effyourbeautfystandards to justify an unhealthy lifestyle.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)