The diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes causes — as might be expected — a plethora of confusion, questioning, uncertainty and fear. Life isn’t a bed of roses, and so being confronted with a new challenge, the first thing I do is start trying to understand what it is I’m being confronted by.

One good thing about traveling is the time it affords one to read; nothing makes an airplane ride go by faster than a good read. Same with bus trips. Both of which I have had in abundance lately.

So, I’ve bought and borrowed from the library, a number of books, which I think deserve some recognition. The first is “The Diabetes Code,” by Jason Fung, MD., a book the site Diet Doctor says, “should change the world.” Subtitled, “Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally,” the book is a wealth of medical information and practical advice.

Another is “Goodbye, Pills & Needles: A Total Re-Think of Type II Diabetes. And A 90 Day Cure,” by Tom Jelenik, PhD.

I’ve also been reading the articles on understandingtype2diabetes.com, a free web site written by a Ken Stephens, who isn’t selling anything, and actually seems to minimize his personal identity on the site. Stephens writes he was diagnosed as Type 2 (sometimes abbreviated as T2D) and his site is the result of his own research. I confess, I like a lot of what he writes.

In fact, all of the sources listed above all have in common the same basic idea: Diabetes is an epidemic and that it is mostly caused by lifestyle choices that sometimes we aren’t even aware of.

Truthfully, I first found myself in this camp during my running years. I still have linked to George Mataljan’s World’s Healthiest Foods site, and I own several books by Joel Fuhrman, MD., who to me is the “godfather” of the “eating healthy” movement.

The upshot of the above is, to me, evidence of a growing awareness into the problem — and solution — to the ever-increasing number of people who have been diagnosed (or will be diagnosed) as diabetic. The main medical community seems reluctant to rethink the carbohydrate-heavy diet promulgated by the government and the big sugar and corn interests, when all around them the evidence is right in front of their faces.

I started this post, thinking it was just going to be a touch point, a brief update. But it’s gotten longer that I thought, so I’ll end it here.