New Yorkers are getting fatter — and that’s come with a spike in diabetes. Credit: Metro file photo
A 33 percent increase in New York adults with Type 2 diabetes over just 10 years is a result of the “the obesity epidemic,”according to Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.
About one out of nine New Yorkers is affected by the disease, which is about 10.7 percent of adults in the city and higher than the nation’s average of 9.5 percent, according to NY1.
“We estimate now that there are 670,000 New York City adults who know that they have diabetes,” Farley said during a roundtable discussion. “That’s 200,000 more than where we were 10 years ago.”
Most of the increase, about 15 percent, occurred in the last two years.
Farley says the recent block on the banning of super-sized soft drinks was a step backward in the fight against obesity.
“Each year, New Yorkers as an entire city’s population gain about 7.5 million pounds,” he said. “If the sugary drink portion cap went through, that would probably reduce that by about a third.”
