3 ms·

Unfortunately diabetes is not <only> caused by sugar. If you are overweight you regular insulin uptake is lowered so your body needs to produce more. No matter

by consp 8y ago

Unfortunately diabetes is not <only> caused by sugar. If you are overweight you regular insulin uptake is lowered so your body needs to produce more. No matter what the cause is (hormonal, fat, sugar). Fat (not necessarily the stuff you consume but the build up in your body) has regulatory properties for your insulin uptake and thus levels which generally result in more fat == more production needed which will give a more quick rise to diabetes type 2 due to a runaway competition. In my experience, totally anecdotal, (I have type 1 diabetes since I was about 5): If I gain weight the amount of insulin required by injection is significantly more than what is to be expected by the simple weight gain (e.g. more stuff == more required to control it, you'd expect some linear correlation).

croon 8y ago
> Unfortunately diabetes is not <only> caused by sugar. If you are overweight you regular insulin uptake is lowered so your body needs to produce more. No matter what the cause is (hormonal, fat, sugar). While true; until I see studies showing otherwise, I'll assume that becoming overweight is overwhelmingly caused by sugar though, with few exceptions. And if that assumption holds, the cause is sugar regardless.
- mnw21cam 8y ago
  It's kind of the other way round. Insulin is a hormone that is produced as a response to high sugar levels in the blood, but it is the insulin level that determines how much fat is stored, not the blood sugar level. Someone with insufficiently treated type 1 diabetes can have very low insulin levels, sky-high blood sugar levels, and be losing weight (and seriously unwell).
  - croon 8y ago
    > Insulin is a hormone that is produced as a response to high sugar levels in the blood, but it is the insulin level that determines how much fat is stored, not the blood sugar level. Sure, but that's like saying that it's not the size of the hole in the boat that is sinking the ship, but the capacity of the guy with a bucket shoving water out of the boat. If you can't produce enough insulin to lower your blood sugar to avoid glucose toxicity, you're already sick. So while the insulin is technically storing the fat, the sugar is directly/short term controlling the insulin response, and indirectly/long term your insulin resistance.

by consp 8y ago

croon 8y ago

> Unfortunately diabetes is not <only> caused by sugar. If you are overweight you regular insulin uptake is lowered so your body needs to produce more. No matter what the cause is (hormonal, fat, sugar). While true; until I see studies showing otherwise, I'll assume that becoming overweight is overwhelmingly caused by sugar though, with few exceptions. And if that assumption holds, the cause is sugar regardless.

mnw21cam 8y ago
It's kind of the other way round. Insulin is a hormone that is produced as a response to high sugar levels in the blood, but it is the insulin level that determines how much fat is stored, not the blood sugar level. Someone with insufficiently treated type 1 diabetes can have very low insulin levels, sky-high blood sugar levels, and be losing weight (and seriously unwell).
- croon 8y ago
  > Insulin is a hormone that is produced as a response to high sugar levels in the blood, but it is the insulin level that determines how much fat is stored, not the blood sugar level. Sure, but that's like saying that it's not the size of the hole in the boat that is sinking the ship, but the capacity of the guy with a bucket shoving water out of the boat. If you can't produce enough insulin to lower your blood sugar to avoid glucose toxicity, you're already sick. So while the insulin is technically storing the fat, the sugar is directly/short term controlling the insulin response, and indirectly/long term your insulin resistance.