The Written Word
for January 21, 2001

I’m going to use today’s Written Word as a bit of a bully pulpit.

I am a Type II diabetic – often called “adult onset”. There are many distinctions between types I and II I needn’t go into but for the most part it means that unlike Type oners, I don’t take insulin by injection. But lest you wonder why I would write an article on such a narrow base let me remind you that medical predictions are that 50% of you are either diabetics or will become such in due course.

No one can explain this epidemic – for that’s what it is. Some talk about lifestyles. Much of it can be put down to better diagnosis. A good part of it is that many of us are living long enough to develop diabetes, Where our fathers and mothers – especially the former – died of strokes and heart attacks in their 40s and 50s we are not doing that any more so that we live to boost the stats on diabetes and cancer.

What happens when you’re diagnosed as diabetic is that you become scared. And the diagnosis comes very quickly – into the doc’s office, a blood test down the hall, a return to hear the results and across the street to get your first medicine. Then an appointment is made for you at the Diabetes Clinic of your local hospital where you will be told what you can and cannot do for the rest of your lives. They teach you how to use a glucometer to test your blood/sugar and then give you pamplets, mostly courtesy of the drug companies. You are then shown an array of wonderful foods you can eat – ice creams, chocolates and soft drinks -all of which contain aspartame or more commonly known as Nutrasweet.

Here is where I get on my bully pulpit. The information the diabetic receives is courtesy of the companies that manufacture the things you can eat and drink. That information comes via the Health Protection Branch of the National Department of Health which does no testing itself but simply analyzes the research done by the companies themselves!

There is now a very large body of evidence that Aspartame is not only bad for one generally but actually raises the blood/sugar of the diabetic!

Now I’m no scientist – I’m a lawyer by trade. I have no idea whatsoever whether aspartame is an innocent sweetener or a poison. What I do know is that if I were a juror, and listened to all the evidence, I would have very grave doubts about this compound. Very grave doubts indeed.

But where can you get information? This is the rub. You either buy into the Canadian Diabetes Association, which gets funding from the chemical companies, propaganda or you do your due diligence on the internet, a daunting task.

I propose to set up a web site – at this point called the Diabetics Action Network – to act simply as a clearing house for all information. It won’t be there to push any ideas or products but simply to be a place all interested – including loved ones of diabetics – can exchange ideas and information.

(It’s interesting to note that one thing all agree on is that every diabetic is different. For example some diabetics find blueberries very helpful for the blood/sugar … that sort of exchange of information may or may not be helpful but certainly will be of interest.)

I must also stress that the undertaking will be not for profit – I propose paying for the domain myself. If there does turn out to be a necessity for funds they will come from volunteer labour or contributions. What I would like from this is any feedback you might have. For a lot of reasons I think my email address at CKNW would be best so you can contact me at mair@cknw.com if you have any suggestions.