The New Diet

Imagine you are a teenage girl. A little overweight, you are happily surprised one day when you start to lose weight, pounds drop off by the week. People compliment you. You are thiner than you have ever been. Then, your doctor tells you this bout of what you thought was luck, is actually a disease–Type I diabetes. There is no cure. To stay healthy, the doctor orders you to inject yourself with a daily shot of insulin. You obey and gain twenty pounds in a few weeks.

What would you do?

One in three diabetic women under 30 opt to forgo their insulin shots, deciding to risk serious health problems like blindness and kidney failure in an attempt to stay slim. Diabulimia is becoming a growing problem in America as more young women find themselves caught making a choice between their present and their future.

A great article on Salon.com last week looked into the sad conundrum that seems indiosyncratically American.