El Paso has highest share of diabetic adults, report finds

According to a recent report released by WalletHub, a personal finance website, El Paso has the highest share of adults with diabetes at 15.6 percent.

WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas. It named El Paso as the 33rd fattest city. For some perspective, only six percent of adults in the Denver area have diabetes.

Terry Sanchez, a nurse with more than 30 years experience and a certified diabetes educator, told ABC-7 one of the reasons El Paso is at the top of the list is because of our large Hispanic population.

“I think you’re going to be hard-pressed to find somebody in El Paso who is not affected by diabetes in some way, shape or form,” Sanchez said, “Either they know somebody who has diabetes, they have family members who have diabetes, or they themselves have diabetes.”

The American Diabetes Association says Hispanics make up more than 12-percent of all diabetics.

Jon Nickerson is a chef who teaches at El Paso Community College. He will often times teach healthy eating classes to the public.

“I do think it’s something that we do need to be aware of. When we’re writing dishes, planning menus — whether or not the guests even request that — to be aware of how much fat we’re using. To be aware of how much sugar we’re using in dishes,” Nickerson said.

March 27th is Diabetes Alert Day. The El Paso Diabetes Association will be offering free testing. For more information, go to their website: www.epdiabetes.org