Every year November 14th is recognized as World Diabetes Day. This special day was created by the United Nations and aims to bring educational awareness about both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes to the public. This year Trinity Lutheran School students gathered outside on the soccer field to take part some activities designed to help them learn just a little bit more about diabetes as well as come together to support their loved ones living with the disease.
Teachers led various stations, with the help of our middle-schoolers, that students would visit. Each station was set up to educate the students about what diabetes is. Students learned the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, what some of the known causes of diabetes are and how they can prevent it. As part of the education, students were encouraged to be more active, make healthy eating choices, and visit their doctors for regular check-ups.
Funds were also collected throughout the day. The funds were then tallied and donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The JDRF is the leading organization funding research into a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. They will then distribute our donation to where it can best help further research and hopefully, one day, find a cure!
To learn more about diabetes you can visit the following sites:
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
International Diabetes Foundation
See below how Trinity Students participated in World Diabetes Day:
Why Count Carbs?
Many people wonder why diabetics have to watch carbs as much as they have to watch sugar in their diets. Fifth graders learned all about it this past week in science class. Keep reading to learn the same lesson they did.
Step 1: Carbs, short for carbohydrates, are either sugars or starches. The class used iodine as an indicator for starch to find out which foods contain starch and which do not. As shown in the first photo, foods with starch turned black while those without starch stayed yellow/brown. Sugar, nuts and lettuce are without starch. Rice, potato, pasta, etc. all have starch.
Step 2: Each student placed some saltine crumbs into two small cups. To one cup they added water, while saliva was added to the other cup. After letting the cups sit iodine was added. As seen in the second photo, the cups with water turned black, while the cups with saliva stayed yellow/brown.
Step 3: So, what does this mean? Saliva is a digestive juice that breaks down large molecules into smaller ones that can be used in the body. Starch is a large molecule that is made of smaller sugar molecules. When saliva and starch are mixed the starch is broken apart into sugar (glucose) molecules. It’s when this happens that a diabetic has to worry. Too much sugar in the blood cannot be tolerated without insulin. In the pictures you can see that the starch in the saltine was ‘digested’ by the saliva. All of the starch has been changed to sugar – a ‘no-no’ for all diabetics.
God made an amazing machine when he made the human body! I’m thankful for my healthy body. How about you?!