I’m addicted to sugar. It seems like a whole bunch of us are. Statistically, Native people are twice as likely as white people to die from diabetes. We’re 2.5 times as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than white people. Those numbers are not indicative of merely lifestyle choices—it’s an addiction, a sickness.

As such, it makes sense that we should treat it as a sickness. That doesn’t just mean that we go to the hospital to get treatment after we’re already afflicted with diabetes, but also aggressively set out with an educational campaign to Native children and within Native schools and within Tribal day care, etc, etc. I was fortunate to visit the Native American Community Academy (“NACA”) in Albuquerque and was immediately struck by all of the nutrition-themed posters around the school. NACA is a charter school for 6-12th graders and represents more than 30 tribal groups.

NACA is part of the Albuquerque Public School District but it has the ability to hire its own school meal provider. The school’s Lunch Program and Healthy Snack Program provides that each school day, a private vendor brings freshly prepared lunches for all students at NACA. The school says that it is “striving to improve the quality of lunches by providing culturally sensitive meals such as buffalo instead of beef, more vegetable choices, and locally grown produce. Healthy, free snacks are also offered to students in the morning and after school.”

You don’t deal with sickness with shame or judgment or silence; you deal with it by bringing it out into the light of day and educating those most at risk for the sickness.