Diabetes… it’s been around forever! Well, maybe not forever. But, it’s definitely been around for a long time. And, the bigger issue is that it’s becoming more and more of a problem as time goes on. Almost 2 million new cases of Type II Diabetes are diagnosed each year. Despite our best efforts as a health and nutrition education community, these numbers continue to rise, meaning that more people are dying from this disease each year than the previous year.

There are many misconceptions about Type II diabetes. Many people think they can ‘cure’ their Type II diabetes by simply removing sugar from their diet. Although this isn’t a bad idea, it’s not a cure for this incredibly dangerous disease. Or, on the other spectrum, many think that once they’ve been diagnosed, there is no going back. They are unaware that, after being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, simple lifestyle changes can reverse the effects of diabetes on their body. Clearing up these misconceptions is an important job of the diabetes educator.

The basics of diabetes education are commonly known in the nutrition community. Carb counting, Exchanges, Portion sizes. If you’re a diabetes educator yourself, I’m sure you can recite many of these words, plus many others, in your sleep without any thought because you’ve taught so many classes, given multiple presentations and counseled countless individuals on the topic of reversing Type II diabetes. Through the years, the disease has stayed the same. But, the educational tools have evolved. Or have they?

We’ve been noticing that many of the tools used to teach diabetes aren’t evolving with our obese population. So, we want to know. How are you teaching diabetes education? What tools do you think are most useful when you’re working with a patient whose recently been diagnosed with Type II diabetes? What information do you find is most effective in getting through to your patients the importance of making lifestyle changes to save their lives? And, most importantly, what’s missing in the field of diabetes education?

As we begin preparation for the Fall 2013 NCES catalog, we want your feedback! You’re in the field every day working with patients to help save lives, what do you feel is missing? This is your opportunity to make sure that a product that could make your diabetes education program more effective or easier to teach is included in our next catalog.

So, whether you prefer to leave your comments here on the blog, share them over on Facebook or Twitter, or even email them directly to us at info@ncescatalog.com. We hope you’ll consider offering your feedback so we can continue to fill the catalog with the best in nutrition education teaching aids, handouts, presentations and more!