Monday, June 10, 2013

It Is My Belief That Bill Cosby Is Wrong & Is Perpetuating Diabetes Myths

Take your pudding pop money and help educate the public on the diabetes facts, instead of perpetuatging diabetes myths
It is my belief that Bill Cosby is a hypocrite who loves the sound of his own voice, and it is my belief that Bill Cosby is wrong.   
And after reading his recent interview in the NY Post with reporter Stacey Brown re: Mayor Blumberg's heath crusade, I have no doubt you'll agree with me!
In his interview, Cosby statesJuvenile diabetes. Children are not being taken out of harm’s way. And there are many things that we also can do, but one is you don’t want your child consuming too much sugar. That is what the mayor tried to do with the sugar in the soft drinks.
It is my belief — my BELIEF in big letters — when people don’t make good choices, you can yell as loud as you want to at me about this is my body and I do what I want to do with my body, so OK yes you can. But now you are spreading it along generationally so that your daughter and grandchildren have it and everybody’s doing it. It becomes a term of apathy because people say my father had it, my aunt had it. People then ask you, “What your mother die of?” “Diabetes.” “Grandmother?” “Diabetes.” These things don’t have to happen if you make the correct choice.
I have news for you, Bill. Diabetes is not a choice, in any shape or form. 
And as a skinny  8 year old kid who ate spinach every night with her dinner, I did not choose to have my pancreas crap out on me, nor did my parents poor the sugar down my throat to cause my type 1 diabetes, a.k.a., juvenile diabetes.
My own body destroyed the area in my pancreas that makes insulin. We, (my parents and I,) did nothing to cause it. And we didn't shrink back in a corner either - and we never sat quietly and "took it" when misinformed people such as yourself blamed us for diabetes.  
A choice is choosing to pitch JELLO Pudding Pops and Coke-A-Cola for years and years, and for great financial gain, and then years later blaming the public for their poor choices... that you helped create. 
So if you're going to preach to Bloomberg about diabetes, make the correct choice and get ALL your diabetes facts straight, instead of perpetuating diabetes myths and stereotypes.
And while you're at it, how about taking the millions you made from JELLO and Coke-A-Cola and give back to the community of which you speak. You say the public needs education, THEN EDUCATE THEM, by all means Bill - Instead of chastising them. 
Take your pudding and soda money and make the choice to contribute to marketing campaigns that educate the public the diabetes facts regarding type 1, type 1.5 and type 2 diabetes and while you're at it, take your Coke money and teach the public that diabetes does not equal fat, regardless of the type!
Perhaps you can create a program where you help provide the public access to Certified Diabetes Educators so they can become empowered and learn to make choices to benefit their health and their lives with diabetes. 
Why not call out companies who use High Fructose Corn Syrup in their products.... Companies like Coke and JELLO. I'm sure you know a few folks there.

A helpful choice would be to take your celebrity and push for a ban on High Fructose Syrup. 
A tremendous choice would be donating some of that pudding and soda money for a type 1 Diabetes Cure. 
You say that "you gotta have fight." Well, Bill, I do have fight, BOAT LOADS OF IT. 
Every single person living with diabetes and all it's types has to have fight in order to survive. 
We fight the public's misconceptions about our diseases every single day.
We fight our insurance companies for better coverage and better rates. 
We fight for our health and to live good lives, despite the fact that we are pancreatically challenged, metabolically frustrated, and continually judged by the public every single day of our lives with diabetes. 
And we fight when blowhards like you speak out of turn when it comes to our disease.
You want do the diabetes blame game, then be prepared to answer your millions of critics living with type1, type 1.5 and type 2 diabetes (and their amazing families) who live with the diabetes facts and realities every day. 
And as for you Stacy Brown & the NY Post: Do your jobs and fact check before you go to print!
And if you'd like to call the NY Post and tell them how you feel about Bill Cosby and his thoughts on diabetes and their shoddy fact checking, their number is: 212-930-8288 and you can email at letters@nypost.com
Have a Coke & a smile and get your diabetes facts straight!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this whole post. Just because Cosby says something, doesn't mean it needs printed.

My favorite part was this though: We fight for our health and to live good lives, despite the fact that we are pancreatically challenged, metabolically frustrated, and continually judged by the public every single day of our lives with diabetes.

Rhonda B said...

Great post and commentary!! I am still flabbergasted at his ignorance, and so annoyed at how people will continue to judge those of us with Type 1 and Type 2 even harsher, all because their "information" about the disease came from a high profile public figure. Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Kelly, When people consider what is relevant in their life they go after the truth but in his case he's not connected and doesn't really care. For him it's just a comedic act which he is use to performing, he needs to get off the stage and let those with some knowledge perform.

Anonymous said...

You go girl!!!!!

Araby62 (a.k.a. Kathy) said...

Damn straight. Gonna email a link to your post!

Anonymous said...

I hope you sent your post as a letter to the editor of the NYPost. There is iust absolutely no excuse for printing garbage like that. It's one thing for Cosby to have said it out of his own ignorance of the facts...but for them to PRINT it without researching and making an "editor's note" in the article to give the correct facts when it is their JOB to print the truth because that is what readers pay for and trust them to print.

StephenS said...

I had a power outage yesterday and I'm just catching up. I noticed the word "Juvenile" has been removed from the article. Of course, if you saw the piece yesterday... too late.

In the end, I'm hoping this is a lemon from which lemonade can be made somehow. That's going to happen if he's willing to listen, educate himself more, and use his newfound knowledge for something positive. Thanks for sharing.

Carey said...

Very good points on the hypocrisy of peddling Coke and pudding pops. That is inexcusable.

Marjorie said...

Everyday I see more and more examples of where our society is lacking in diabetes knowledge. I just posted today
http://labradorsweet.blogspot.ca/2013/06/tuesday-tidbit_11.html a small little blurb about an article that was printed in Canadian Living, and am planning my rebuttal letter to them.

Take a read, and if you have any suggestions about what to include in my letter, let me know.

Kristin said...

I'm guessing you contacted the NYPost (and hopefully Cosby's publicist) - could you let us know what the response was?
The reporter for the CBS58 article that suggested a toddler's T1 was caused by sweets immediately responded to emails/phone calls and wants to set the record straight by highlighting differences between T1/T2 - maybe similar enlightenment might happen here? One can only hope!

Anonymous said...

Editor at New York Post,

Please make sure that you do not print or post comments from (Dr.) Bill Cosby on Type 1 Diabetes anymore as it is obvious the man does not know what Type 1 Diabetes is or where or how it develops. Furthermore, you should add a retraction and state that you did not do any kind of research before posting his erroneous and condescending comments.

As the Past President of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and a Mother of a son who contracted Type 1 Diabetes when he was 20 months old, I can assure you that we did not cause this deadly issue for my son. I would be happy to speak with you about the condition if you choose to become more informed. There is no Type 1 Diabetes in either the maternal or the fraternal side of our families. My son’s pancreas stopped working when he was 20 months old. Just stopped working.

He contracted a bad case of bronchitis months prior to the deadly disease occurring. Type 1 Diabetes in children, who can even contract the disease up to and beyond 25 years old, is not a result of too much sugar. My son is 21 years old now and has lived with this deadly, incurable disease his entire life. I have visited Washington, DC and spoke in front of our Congress to appropriate more money for the cure of this deadly disease through NIH and other funding. Also look at the facts for the JDRF. Its mission is to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes through research. JDRF is the only global organization with a strategic plan to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people's lives until it is no longer a threat to anyone. There have been multiple articles written about our family with correct facts and it infuriates me to read something from a Celebrity, speaking of a topic that he obviously knows nothing about.

Thank you for your time reading this. There are multiple posts requesting and stating how ignorant both parties were in letting something like your post get published. I look forward to a retraction. I also look forward to seeing (Dr.) Bill Cosby put some of the money from his Coke ads and his Jell-O Pudding Bar ads where his mouth is. Although these products do not cause Type 1 Diabetes, it would be nice to see him or your publication try to help cure this deadly disease, as opposed to publishing incorrect data.

Please feel comfortable to forward this to all parties involved. I look forward to a response from you.

My Best,
Name and phone number removed by poster.


PS. I was going to look for and invest in tickets for his upcoming tour. Instead, I will send the additional money to JDRF.

Alphonse said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Thank you so very much for posting this!!!

Unknown said...

Just because a person keeps in good health, it doesn't always mean that they can skip what has genetically been in their family's bloodline especially in American where there are health risks in eating damn near anything that consumers but to eat!!


~Paridon