Ever wonder why there seems to be more portly kids these days? Many places I visit and shop at show me an increasing amount of young kids and pre-teens that seem to be getting larger every year. So, when I read that one in every 523 kids in the U.S. actually has diabetes (diagnosed), it was not a surprising revelation to me.

I'm a firm believer that although diabetes is part of genetics, it's exacerbated greatly by bad nutrition -- a common staple in most children's diets that I've personally witnessed. A recent report stated that 154,369 youths had physician-diagnosed diabetes -- and that was in 2001.

The majority of those kids diagnosed with diabetes were non-Hispanic white children, and the most common form of diabetes here was type 1 (a deficiency of blood sugar). Type 1 diabetes is the most common form of the disease in children, while type 2 diabetes -- the body's inability to use insulin effectively -- strikes adults more often.

It's extremely hard to find and prepare solid and nutritious meals with the busy lives we all have, but the effort -- while painstaking -- may easily be well worth it.