Slim Fast, Die Young

A week ago I came downstairs to find my 75 year old father lying on the floor. He was fitting, foaming at the mouth and was lost somewhere in the depths of a very deep diabetic coma. Although, at the time I couldn't be sure if his condition was related to his diabetes, I'd seem him have a hypo in the past, but this was different, his face was swollen, and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth, his eyes were wide open, but there was no response from him. Paramedics were called and after they had administered 3 IV shots of glucose, they called for back up, having got no response from him. After an hour he was still out cold. However, slowly, very slowly, he started to come round. As he regained consciousness he became very distressed, but after another 15 minutes or so he was pretty much back to his normal self. The whole episode lasted about an hour and a half, and was one of the most frightening things I, or any other member of my family has ever gone through.


Now, I don't think I would normally post something this personal here, but this week saw a report published, and covered extensively by the BBC and others, of the latest trend for some diabetics to miss out their insulin injections for fear of getting fat.


Current estimates are that one third of young women with diabetes are using this method to keep slim, in the process they are risking blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure and heart disease. However, I'm not condemning them entirely for their actions. The society in which we live nowadays is very much obsessed with body image, where teenage girls, and boys have impossible role models to aspire to. To be anything over a size 6, or to be without the obligatory six-pack is to be unhealthy, ugly and a freak in these "Heat" obsessed times, whereas in reality, as a majority we are a nation of lardy arsed wobble bottoms- and remember, I come from a people who think nothing of putting a Scotch Pie on a roll, or deep frying in batter anything that doesn't move.


May I recommend the Deep Fried Pizza Supper, Pickled egg and a cheeky little bottle of Irn Bru?


So I won't condemn them, but their actions do anger me, to put their lives in danger in this way saddens me. Not that I've lived a blameless life myself. There was a point in my life when in my Top 5 list on BT Friends and Family, after my parents' and my girlfriend's number, listed as Number 3, was the telephone number for Pizza Hut Delivery, Sockets Heath, Grays, Essex. And I got staff discount in Oddbins, Lakeside.


I do think we need to educate (not lecture) people more when it comes to health and nutrition in this country, my own father's diabetes could possibly have been avoided if he'd been more careful in his lifestyle choices, my own body is on the verge of collapse having abused it quite spectacularly when younger, but it's not too late to make a change. Find a healthier balance. And make the most of the life we have.


And if I can give just one piece of advice to anyone reading this, it would this... Start each day with a bowl of porridge. A slow, gradual release of sugar into the bloodstream, lowers cholesterol and almost as tasty as the cold left overs of last night's Chicken Patia. I may have lied about that last bit.

I'm sorry, this has become a bit of a lecture. It's just that after seeing my dad the way he was, and knowing how much worse the whole episode could've been, it threw me a bit to read the story about diabulemia.

I'm leaving this post as a work in progress. I started out trying to come to terms with my own feelings about nearly losing my dad, but I became distracted first by the eating disorder side, but latterly by the role image alone plays in so many women's lives.

For young women to put their health at risk to look good, or at least to conform to the image society, or at least fashion, dictates is nothing new. But there seems to have been so little progress in over 300 years.

One of the first, and finest feminist books published was Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" in 1792, yet in part it could have been written at any time in the past 25 years- image, sexuality and independence may be hot topics now on Loose Women, but they are nothing compared to the arguments put forward by Wollstonecraft at the tail end of the 18th Century. And, if you would indulge me, in time I would like to come back to this.

So for now I'll sign off. Maybe not my most coherent posting, but, it will all make sense eventually.

Now, if you would all turn to Chapter One in "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin...and pay attention, I'll be asking questions later.