The Diet Channel promotes the headline: eat right, exercise smart, feel great! An authoritative resource for diet and fitness information, The Diet Channel offers several different summaries of the most popular diets, as well as informative articles on nutrition and health.

An article of diabetic interest pertains to those of us who are curious (or downright fixated) on artificial sweeteners. This article warns that it is not always safe to assume that just because a product is made with a sugar substitute, such as Splenda, it is healthier, or lower in calorie content. A thorough list of sweeteners and their key ingredients end the article, along with research findings on the safety of these products.

The Diet Channel offers information on every flavor of diet you can imagine, articles to motivate you to stick with it, and loads of information to keep you coming back. If I didn't know any better - I'd say it looks to be the wikipedia of dieting. And if you've ever found yourself consuming hour after hour digging through wikipedia topics...you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!

A white elephant is a supposedly valuable possession whose upkeep exceeds its usefulness, and it is therefore a liability. Every type 2 diabetic is a valuable possession to someone: a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a daughter, a son...you get the picture. But when it comes to the complications of the disease - it costs the U.S. health system an extra $22.9 billion a year to treat these complications.

"It is a pretty significant wake-up call for people, or should be. It really points out the importance of managing the disease," said Willard Manning, a health economist at the University of Chicago who worked on the report.

Dr. Daniel Einhorn says "the fact that people are still getting complications means we are not using our tools effectively enough," When people fail to follow their diet, exercise and drug treatment plans, the disease leads to complications that boost the total health bill to $57.1 billion. "Either the patient doesn't recognize they have it and complications develop, or they are not good about adhering to their doctor's orders," he said, adding, "We've got to do a better job of managing the disease." Dr. Einhorn serves on the board of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

Of course, it's the patient -- NOT the drugs they are using. It couldn't possibly be the drugs.

The FDA has approved a new over-the-counter weight loss drug called alli (orlistat) that is designed to absorb 25% of the fat from your meal. However, nutrition and fitness expert Dr. Len Lopez, author of "To Burn or Not to Burn, Fat is the Question" shares his reasons why the new approved weight loss drug may not be beneficial to your health.

New research is showing that medications don't make us healthier. Research is showing that losing weight with medications doesn't decrease the rate of heart attacks, strokes or diabetes. Add that to the fact that your body loses nutrients with these medications and you can easily see how these new weight loss drugs can hamper your health. Dr. Lopez discusses practical steps to losing weight which includes diet and exercise, but also covers how stress and adrenal fatigue can disrupt our hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. These hormonal imbalances can throw off our metabolism and take us out of our fat burning mode.

Both of Dr.Lopez's books cover a good deal of information to understand how we can correct our imbalances in piecing together the weight loss puzzle. His knowledge explores the roles of insulin and cortisol in weight gain, cravings, fatigue and more. He also explains how stress can take you out of your fat burning zone and helps you regain your blood sugar balance, as well as implementing the "Five and Two" dieting plan.

Say NO to the weight loss drugs and say YES to the empowering knowledge Dr. Lopez has to share.

Bariatric surgery is the term for operations to help promote weight loss by making it difficult for the patient to consume a lot (or even a normal amount) of food. It offers a viable solution of mitigating type 2 diabetes, if not curing it entirely. In 2004, a major study showed that after 10 years, diabetes disappeared in 36% of patients who had the surgery, compared with 13% who did not.

Bariatric surgery is an increasingly popular option for people who can't lose enough weight by diet and exercise. The number of such surgeries has quadrupled since 2000, reaching 177,600 this year. For morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes, bariatric surgery results in a cure rate of 80-98%. About 90% of type 2 diabetics are overweight. In terms of just diabetes alone, the cure rate of serious illness after surgery is greater than 80%.

Bariatric surgery is nothing to take lightly. Although it is a serious procedure, it gives type 2 diabetics a token of hope they may never have to rue the day of diabetic complication like blindness, amputations, neuropathy, stroke, heart attack, and life itself. Is the risk worth the reward?