March of the diabetics

Slate magazine has an utterly fascinating visual depiction of a developing health crisis in America: diabetes.

Here’s the rate of diabetes in 2004

diabetes_04.jpg

And just four years later, it looks like this:

diabetes_08.jpg

Compared to the South, as you can see, Minnesota gets off pretty easy. But it’s not too hard to see why diabetes is going to cost the U.S. over $3.4 trillion, by one estimate.

Type 2 diabetes can be prevented with a simple change in diet in many cases. But many people don’t bother.