Today we continue our series on the Mother of All Solutions.  We have talked about how increasing the general level of education in a society results in better decision making and a higher quality of life.  We are defining education as a combination of knowledge, awareness and experience.

Last week we saw how improved access to formal education improves the quality of life and gives us a conceptual structure for our knowledge.  We also talked about how the media (including books and magazines) expands our knowledge and helps us stay aware of what is going on in the world.

Now we are going to take a look at how our experiences shape our beliefs and mould our awareness of what is going on in the world.  Consider that nearly everything and everyone we encounter has an effect on how we perceive things.

Interestingly, we are also affected by what we have not yet experienced.  One of the most common primeval fears is of the unknown.   Since most of us do not respond well to fear we tend to have negative opinions about things beyond our direct experience. This also is true about how we respond to other people.  Similarly, we tend to see others who are different than us in a negative light. The more different they seem to us the more likely we are to judge them.

Diabetes Health just returned from the annual meeting of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), in Washington, D.C., August 6 through 9, 2008. We joined 3,500 attendees in, as AADE President, Amparo Gonzalez, RN, BSN, CDE, said, “taking on the challenges of delivering diabetes education in today’s healthcare environment.”

Marie McCarren attended a session titled “Practical Resources for Vegan Diet Instruction for Diabetes” by Caroline Trapp, MSN, APRN, BC-ADM, CDE, director of Diabetes Education and Care, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, D.C.

The good news? You won’t need to count calories or restrict portions. You may feel that you are eating a lot, but you’ll probably be consuming fewer calories than you did when you were eating meat and sugary foods.