With 3.2 million, or 13.3 percent of the adult Black population living with diabetes as of 2005, it is no secret that this disease has hit the African American community hard. Diabetes puts Blacks at risk for various medical problems including blindness,
Individuals with type I or type II diabetes have high levels of blood sugar because their bodies are unable to break it down. People with type I diabetes cannot produce insulin because their bodies attack the cells that produce the hormone, which is necessary to metabolize blood sugar. African Americans are often susceptible to type II diabetes.
The cells in people with type II diabetes do not metabolize insulin because their bodies become resistant to it. As the body needs more insulin, the pancreas cannot produce it. Race and ethnicity, old age, obesity, family history and physical inactivity are factors contributing to the development of type II diabetes.
This especially rings true for African American males. The National Cancer Institute in 2003 reported that Black men were twice as likely to develop diabetes as white men. They also develop diabetes earlier in life than other men. Additionally, 27.9 percent of Black men between the ages of 20 and 74 were categorized as obese from 1999 to 2002, according to the NCI.
When Blacks do get diabetes, they are 2.7 times as likely to have lower limb amputations based on statistics from 2005, but these rates are startlingly 1.4 to 2.7 times higher in Black men. Dr. Thomas Pitts, an African American endocrinologist, noted that he saw more Black males with diabetes than white males, especially type II diabetes. Pitts explained that diet was a factor in this trend.
“African Americans are eating a higher fat, lower fiber diet,” he said. Pitts, however, hesitated to blame soul food, and other traditional Black cuisine for the rise in diabetes in the Black population “I think soul food may have something to do with it, but most African American men and women now eat high fat, high salt diets as a matter of economics,” he said.
Pitts noted that Blacks, along with the rest of Americans, eat more at fast food restaurants than they did in the past. Black men, who have a high risk for developing diet related diseases, consume some of the lowest levels of fruits and vegetables, the NCI found. While federal nutrition policy recommends that men get nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day, on average Black men ate 3.1 servings. But the lack of veggie consumption in the African American diet is not a cultural issue, Pitts explained, as much as it is an economic one.
“Vegetables now cost more money because they have higher spoilage rate,” he said. “African Americans may be underpaid and have fewer dollars.” “We live in communities with fewer quality grocery stores,” he added. Pitts noted that it is possible to prevent type II diabetes with a healthy diet and exercise. Judge James Williams, 73, who is borderline diabetic, said that he thought he would never develop diabetes because he maintains a healthy diet.
“I was never diagnosed with any kind of problem with my sugar even though my family is almost devastated by the number of men and women who have diabetes,” he explained. Williams limits his consumption of red meat, eats vegetables, and exercises on a regular basis. Wilton Adams, 68, was diagnosed with type II diabetes in 2005.
He explained that living with diabetes involves monitoring his blood sugar levels on a daily basis, taking insulin and monitoring his diet. The disease has not caused Adams to drastically change how he eats. “I pretty much still eat the things that I like,” he said. Adams explained that he began to eat more vegetables once diagnosed with diabetes and limits his consumption of sweets.
Like so many Black men Adams suffered complications common among diabetics. He has glaucoma, which caused loss of vision in one eye and diminished vision in his other eye. Adams explained that he initially had to be hospitalized due to complications from diabetes. But, he said, his condition improved once he began to eat differently and take insulin.
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