In ten years the English have tripled their rates of Type II diabetes–and expect the trend to continue. A new study, to the tune of a million English pounds, is being conducted through the University of Bristol (and others) to test how much better patients will get by increasing exercise levels. One of three groups of newly diagnosed Type II diabetics will begin wearing monitors to gauge how much exercise they get each day. The study will compare results for those treated with dietary advice alone, dietary plus exercise, and the “usual care” routine.

A friend goes to a holistic treatment guy who has managed to get her off lifelong allergy medicines and out of decades-long chronic pain. One of the secrets is reducing sugar to an absolute minimum. And she says how incredibly hard that is–because almost everything that goes through any processing at all gets corn syrup or some derivative added to it. That’s everything from bread to soups–let alone the obviously sugar-laden items on our shelves.

This makes sense–because it’s hard to believe the incredible rise in obesity is due simply to the fact that people all over the world are eating so much more than ever.