A guy cold-called me the other day, essentially asking for a link to a graphic his organization created about diabetes, hoping to "get this conversation outside of just the diabetes blogosphere." I said sure.

Part of his idea was that I would share what I learned from reading the graphic, but there wasn't much. Apparently, stuff I think anyone knows isn't as widely known as I'd have thought. Stuff like:

I don’t have to come to every discussion I’m invited to, but sometimes, the invitation is just too juicy.

The case in point this morning is the Corn Refiners Association recent newsletter lead story, “Natural Options for Sweeteners.”

Yes, the refiners boasted that high fructose corn syrup “meets the Food and Drug Administration policy for use of the term ‘natural.’" ‘Course, that sham is on the FDA, and if I were the corn refiners, I’d use it too. But still, it is a sham:

Ordinarily I’d just tweet this ‘cause I don’t have much to add to it, but I wanted to highlight the bankruptcy of this in a headline.

One of the Canadian government’s “partners” for an anti-diabetes campaign is the Tim Hortons donut empire. As Dr. Yoni Freedhoff said in his headline, no, this is "not The Onion."

This squib from the Physician's Briefing website reflects some broad truths, considering it results from a survey of peoiple at risk for diabetes in Finland: Excerpts:

"Only 36 percent of at-risk men and 52 percent of at-risk women perceived the need for lifestyle counseling. ... Of those individuals who perceived the need for counseling, 35 percent refused to participate." About a third of the people who agreed to participate never showed up even once.

My voracious reading friend, Ron, points toward this morning's squib from Jane Brody of the Times on the public health consequences of the continued rise of obesity in America: By 2020, demographers say, three out of four Americans will be obese or overweight, ands that by 2030, there will be 65 million more in those categories than there were last year.

Though certainly, the current proportion of two out of three is horrendous enough, she says:

One of my repeating tropes lately has been to ask those who rail against government involvement in setting nutrition standards, "what's your solution?" To me, it's not enough to wax nostalgic on parental guidance as the way to resolve the national obesity crisis, not necessarily because it wouldn't work, but because so few are using it!