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in collaboration with
Virginie Dubois (dietician-nutritionist)
In terms of health, false information is legion. The latest: a post that has been shared more than 40,000 times on Facebook, which touts pumpkin juice as an effective cure for diabetes. A particularly viral publication in Côte d’Ivoire, whose population has 700,000 diabetics.
If diabetes had a cure as simple as pumpkin juice, people would know. And yet some believe in it, given the number of shares of this false health information. She explains that by mixing a whole squash, with its skin and drinking its juice, diabetes could be cured.
Obviously false information, as confirmed by Virginie Dubois, dietitian nutritionist. “Pumpkin juice may be good to consume as a vegetable, as part of a balanced diet for diabetes, but is not a treatment.” confirms the specialist.
Diabetics who often ignore each other
Diabetes is a silent disease. Age, sedentary lifestyle and abdominal fat are the factors favoring diabetes but very often, the patient is unaware of it. “Very often, people with diabetes have no symptoms and do not even know they are diabetic. advances the dietician, who encourages people at risk of triggering the disease not to take it as a fatality.
“Diabetes can be prevented by maintaining a stable weight, not being overweight, following a balanced diet and practicing regular physical activity”.
A pathology that can be treated without medication, in some cases
Health professionals therefore encourage diabetics to follow their treatments, their diet and regular physical activity to balance their chronic disease.
“In some special cases, the treatments are not given as first intention, the patient is first invited to lose weight in consultation with a dietician. Or in the context of gestational diabetes, as few drugs are compatible with pregnancy, the pregnant woman will have to regulate her blood sugar through diet and physical activity. adds Virginie Dubois.
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A rapidly increasing pathology in the world
According to the World Health Organization, diabetes has a high impact on low-income countries. The WHO also recalls that we have gone from “108 million diabetics in 1980 to 422 million in 2014“. A figure that explodes and brings with it its share of renal and ophthalmological complications but also myocardial infarction, stroke or amputation of the lower limbs. Indeed, according to the health authority, “1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes in 2019“.