Diet therapy among young diabetics in the Philippines.

Abstract

There is an increasing incidence of diabetes among children in the Philippines where the adult prevalence rate is 4%. The approach to treatment follows conventionally accepted principles of diet, exercise, orals/insulin, education and rehabilitation. Attempts at standardizing diet for these juvenile diabetics is plagued by variables that keep on influencing the diet of people who come from many islands with different ethnic backgrounds. These variables include (i) Parentage, (ii) Age, (iii) Height/frame/weight, (iv) Activities, (v) Socio/economic/cultural, (vi) Diagnosis/control/complications, (vii) Who treats the patient, (viii) Drugs in use, (ix) Educational resources, (x) Motivation/compliance/morale, (xi) Monitoring capabilities, (xii) Team support. Camp exemplifies the ideal insofar as the handling of diet therapy is concerned. But this has to be effectively translated into the everyday life of the diabetic youngster if it is to be of any help at all. The aims are (i) to get the overweights down to normal weight (ii) the underweights up to normal weight (iii) the normal weights to keep within the range of normal weight--all with the least changes in their established lifestyle, hopefully maintaining healthy metabolic balance and providing for proper growth and development. We propose that diet was made for diabetics and not diabetics for diet.