In this day and age of high tech I need to stop and wonder what is happening to the population of the U.S. it seems that a large number of its citizens are becoming ill with diabetes.

According to the American Diabetes Association there are 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease. With so many people affected by diabetes, the American Diabetes Association has compiled diabetes statistics on the impact of the disease and its complications. Based on death certificate data, diabetes contributed to 224,092 deaths in 2002. Studies indicate that diabetes in generally under-reported on death certificates, particularly in the cases of older persons with multiples chronic conditions such as heart disease and hypertension. Because of this, the toll of diabetes is believed to be much higher than officially reported.

I dont believe that cookies and baked goods are the culprits for this terrible disease, back in the 50s and 60s our parents and grandparents baked cookies on a daily basis and we as children had eaten dozens of cookies almost on a daily basis, there were cookies and milk after school, cookies in your lunch bag, and a snack before bedtime of cookies, we had cookies of every shape and form that anyone can imagine.

During the Christmas and Easter Holidays I went to my grandparents home and usually upon arrival we were offered cookies and milk for the children and cookie and coffee for the adults, during this period in time people would swap cookie recipes like children would swap baseball cards. Now that we are in the 21st Century no one can say that because they are diabetic that they cannot eat cookies, with all the new sugar free and diabetic cookie recipes that you can find and all the diabetic cookies on the market no one should say I cannot eat cookies.