A huge study of millions of kids revealed for the first time the
true measure of type 2 diabetes in children in the United
States. The results appeared in the June 27, 2007 Journal of the
American Medical Association. In the recent past, type 2
diabetes was called adult-onset diabetes because this obesity-
related condition was a problem of the middle-aged and the
elderly. It usually takes years of unhealthy eating to tip
someone into this type of diabetes. It was rarely seen before
age 30 or even 40. Sadly, today we do see type 2 diabetes in
children. A family I saw yesterday had a 10-year-old who already
had it. Pediatricians across the country are having similar
experiences. But until this significant study none of us knew
exactly how large the problem had become. Stunningly, 22 percent
of all diabetes diagnosed in US children was type 2. And in kids
aged 10-19, type 2 diabetes was more common than the autoimmune
type 1 (previously called juvenile diabetes) – even though type
1 has also been increasing over