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The rise in diabetes and the obesity epidemic are believed to be connected, but researchers are looking at other possible causes. In this video, John Merendino, MD, an endocrinologist, talks about how cost and consumption affects diagnosis.
Mainly due to obesity, and there's been a lot of interest over the past couple of decades about whether there may be other environmental factors that are triggers for diabetes. Various researchers have focused on certain food additives or certain particular food items where the high fructose corn syrup is particularly problematic et cetera.
It's really been there's been no clear determination of anything other than obesity. If you look at the question of high fructose corn syrup in particular I would say probably the biggest issue there is that sweetening things has become much cheaper than it was and therefore consumption of sweetened beverages, and so forth is much, much greater, the cost of soda in inflation of just the term is probably a third now what it was in the 1960's.
So it's easier to put people to buy soda and consume in larger amounts.
John J. "Jack" Merendino, MD, is a Sharecare Advisory Board Member and a board-certified endocrinologist in Bethesda, MD. He is co-author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes.
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