Physician-researcher tackling diabetes, obesity among Latino
kids Dr. Roberto Trevino, who emerged from a San Antonio housing
project to become a doctor with clinics in the city's most
disadvantaged neighborhoods, got tired of "waiting for diabetic
people age 40 and older to walk into the clinic, going blind and
losing limbs." So, in 1994, he created Bienestar, a school-based
diabetes prevention program to boost kids' fitness and healthy
eating. Today, 27 Texas school districts, many in low-income,
Latino areas, use Bienestar to help 150,000 elementary- and
middle-school students. "I felt somebody had to go back into
those poor populations and reach out, and start changing
behavior at an early age," said Dr. Trevino, a Salud America!
member who runs the San Antonio-based Social & Health Research
Center, a nonprofit that aims to prevent diabetes and obesity in
communities and schools using health programs like Bienestar.
About 91 percent of all causes of type 2 diabetes are attributed
to a diet high in saturat