Mexico warns diabetes may bankrupt health system

Rocketing levels of diabetes threaten to cripple Mexico's already strained health services, as Mexicans spurn exercise and healthy eating in favor of heavy foods and sugary soft drinks, the government said on Thursday.

Health Secretary Jose Cordova warned expensive treatment for diabetes, Mexico's No. 1 cause of death in recent years, would bankrupt the country's health system within the next decade if illness levels were not controlled.

Nearly 6.5 million Mexicans are diabetic, a figure that is expected to grow to 11 million by 2025.

Cordova said the problem was mostly cultural in a country where greasy meat tacos and Coca-Cola are often considered a normal breakfast.

Nearly a fifth of all Mexicans subsist on less than $1 a day, according to recent World Bank figures.

"The concept of healthy eating is almost nonexistent," he told a Rotary Club lunch, where steak, cream cheese and dark chocolate cake were on the menu.

The country has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world. Obesity affects the body's blood sugar levels and greatly increases the chance of developing diabetes.

The cost of providing care for those with diabetes is equivalent to 34 percent of the country's budget for social services, and doubles every five years.

Cordova said many Mexicans were dismissive of the condition. Doctors and patients frequently avoid using the medicine insulin until the disease becomes a life or death issue.

This reluctance can reduce the patient's life expectancy by several years, said the minister, a trained doctor.