The urban lifestyle favors diabetes, an "emergency in slow chamber", according to experts, which derives from unhealthy habits and that deeply affects Mexico.
Richard de Pirro, architect and teacher in urban design of Harvard University, defines this evil as the diabetes case crisis in cities derived from "properly urban lifestyles."
According to the program "Cities changing diabetes", which studies patterns of this disease in different cities, including the Mexican capital, two thirds of the world population suffering from diabetes lives in urban areas.
In an interview, by Pirro, he indicated that life in Ciudad fosters "a problem of habits, possibilities and demands" that have given rise to diabetes being, together with obesity, the main health problem in Mexico.
It is an "emergency in slow motion" because "the effects are not immediate" of a disease that in Mexico has "alarming levels," said the professor of the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
For example, the division between residential and industrial areas in Mexico City prevents its inhabitants "having a much more pedestrian life."
Citizens move for hours from one place to another every day and that "forces them to eat at fast food sites," said the urban planner.
In addition, he said, "life in the city is very intense" and "people are more busy."That avoids "take care of your health."
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 15.9 percent of the Mexican population suffer from diabetes, more than double the average of 6.9 percent verified by this agency.
Rodrigo Figueras, a diabetes and obesity doctor, said that the urban Mexican diet is "disorderly" and "obesity generator and diabetes."
He talked about an "extraordinarily high carbohydrates" diet by the abuse of tortillas, rice and bread.
In addition, the doctor, the average urban Mexican does not drink water, but sugary sodas.The soda "is very easy to acquire, it is addictive," he argued.
Dr. Figueras claimed, as a first measure, to reduce "the price of bottled water, which today is at the same time or more expensive than the soda."
And Pirro highlighted the need to "promote non -motorized movement", create safe environments for pedestrians and cyclists, and promote recreation spaces to stop urban diabetes.
"You have to take care of many aspects of the life of citizens (...) if we really want to have an impact and change the course of statistics," he defended.
