Long Walkers Make it to the Diabetes Summit

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Longest Walk 3. Discussion »

LEESBURG, VIRIGINIA - The Longest Walk 3 - Reversing Diabetes Long Walkers from the northern and southern routes merged last Friday in Hollister, North Carolina.

Longest Walk goes through Historic Leesburg

The Long Walkers made it to Leesburg, Virginia Tuesday morning and are now part of a diabetes summit at the Best Western Hotel & Conference Center.

On Tuesday afternoon, the summit participants viewed a video called, "Simply Raw," an independently produced film that features real people who are afflicted with diabetes.

Long Walker Arrive in Leesburg, VA

The film describes the fact that worldwide there are 246 million people who suffer from diabetes and the number of people afflicted with diabetes has tripled during the past decade. The costs of diabetes is $176 billion annually.

The film provides a candid view about how Americans, as a whole, maintain bad eating habits and that even cooking the food takes away some of the nutritional value of food.

One profound statement on treatment of diabetes in the film is: "Medicine is a bandage, not the cure."

"We are on the world's worst diet. I have been saying that all across the country. The ironic thing is, we have the world's best food supply," said Dennis Banks, the co-founder of the American Indian Movement and who conceived the Longest Walk 3 - Reversing Diabetes.

Banks was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago.

"Simply Raw" is a powerful documentary film that should make people think about how they should eat properly.

posted July 5, 2011 5:40 pm edt