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I hate that they begin with "No, you don’t get it from eating too many sweets." Then later they admit that Type 2 diabetes risk is greatly increased by an unhea

I hate that they begin with "No, you don’t get it from eating too many sweets." Then later they admit that Type 2 diabetes risk is greatly increased by an unhealthy diet. So you can get diabetes from an unhealthy diet, like a diet with too many sweets.

ng12 7y ago
It's explained in the article: > Type 1 diabetes develops as a result of genetic risk and an unclear trigger; it’s not caused by eating sugar — or anything else... The story for Type 2 diabetes is a bit more complicated.
- calibas 7y ago
  That explains the difference between Type 1 and Type 2. I made sure to be clear which type I was talking about though.
Kye 7y ago
This kind of false attribution is how we got a market full of "low fat" foods packed with sugar. It seems like "don't eat too much sugar" should be a harmless, practical abstraction, but people will go off and eat a diet that still leads to type 2 diabetes while avoiding obvious sugars. And missing non-obvious ones. For example: A "healthy" serving of plain corn flakes with a serving of plain milk has lots of sugar in it. Foods can have low added sugar, or low some-kind-of sugar, and still lead to type 2 diabetes. Focusing on sugar will lead to the same health disaster that came from focusing on salt or fat.
- gowld 7y ago
  Your example is still high sugar. The anti fat crusade was a marketing lie sponsored by sugar /corn syrup manufacturers. No one's confused into thinking sugar is good, they just like eating junk food.
dghughes 7y ago
If you have diabetes you crave sweets due to having diabetes. Sugar doesn't cause diabetes. You eat food because you are hungry. Food doesn't not cause hunger.
- calibas 7y ago
  By all means, tell me what causes Type 2 diabetes then. The actual science is unclear, but it's linked to your diet.
  - skohan 7y ago
    Yes - I mean if diet doesn't contribute to diabetes, then why has there been a correlation between obesity, type 2 diabetes incidence, and increased sugar and simple carbs in the standard American diet? I am not an endocrinologist, but the idea that habitual abuse of the body's insulin system causes a pathology in that system - at least in vulnerable individuals - is much more plausible than the idea that we're all getting diabetes from the water or something and that's why we're drinking soda and eating unhealthy foods. If there is some plausible alternate theory, or some contradicting evidence I would be very interested to hear it.
    - calibas 7y ago
      In my opinion at least, the science is clear. The human body isn't built for large amounts of heavily processed foods, and consuming them in excess causes a whole spectrum of health issues. This is all made worse because health science is heavily influenced by the same industries that profit enormously off of processed foods.
      - gowld 7y ago
        "Heavily processed" is not a scientific term. People don't eat boxes (but perhaps they should, because the actual danger in processed foods is removing fiber.) Fruit juice is terrible but not heavily processed. Sugar is not heavily processed. Baking cakes and deep frying everything at home is not heavily processed.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
sithlord 7y ago
You dont get diabetes from eating "too many sweets". If you have a disposition to type 2 diabetes, and you eat too many sweets, then sure the symptoms are more likely to show sooner. A quit google, shows that ~40% of americans are obese, and around 9% of americans have type 2 diabetes. If eating poorly lead to diabetes (and didnt just expose the symptoms) then those numbers would be much closer.
- nradov 7y ago
  More than a third of American adults have prediabetes. The A1c dividing line between prediabetes and full Type 2 diabetes is essentially arbitrary. Eating too many sweets is absolutely a proven risk factor. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/prediabetes.html https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/prediabetes.html
- everfree 7y ago
  > You dont get diabetes from eating "too many sweets". If you have a disposition to type 2 diabetes, and you eat too many sweets, then sure the symptoms are more likely to show sooner. I don't think this is really a useful distinction. If you eat a lot of sugar and "get diabetes", i.e. it becomes clinically significant, then it would be just as correct to blame your sugar intake as to blame your genetics. It's quite known that sugar intake is strongly correlated with diabetes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584048/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584048/
  - sithlord 7y ago
    I dont think anyone is arguing that sugar intake isn't correlated with type 2 diabetes surfacing. But, that same person would start showing eventually regardless, just may not be as soon. People with type 2 diabetes, genetically, have trouble removing glucose from cells, this is a fact, eating too much sugar, means that the cells become full sooner, and the body shows that it can't deal with it.
    - gowld 7y ago
      When it shows matters a lot. I hope my diabetes shows after I die.
adrianmonk 7y ago
They say, "Too much sugar, per se, won’t give you diabetes." The "per se" makes it plenty clear (to me at least) that their point is that sugar does not DIRECTLY cause diabetes.
- calibas 7y ago
  I'm not following this logic, we don't know what the direct cause of diabetes Type 2 is, but there's evidence it's linked to sugar. What this means is that you can't authoritatively state that sugar is the cause of diabetes. It does not mean that sugar has been proven to not be the cause.
  - sithlord 7y ago
    type 1 diabetes - beta cells (which create insuling) in the pancreas get destroyed by autoimmune disease) type 2 diabetes - cells that hold glucose are resistant to insulin produced by the body. As in, Sugar almost certainly doesn't cause type 2 diabetes but causes the symptoms to surface because of the inability to remove the excess glucose from the cells.
    - calibas 7y ago
      None of that actually answers what causes insulin resistance to develop in type 2 diabetes. You can't claim that sugar "almost certainly" isn't the cause.

ng12 7y ago

It's explained in the article: > Type 1 diabetes develops as a result of genetic risk and an unclear trigger; it’s not caused by eating sugar — or anything else... The story for Type 2 diabetes is a bit more complicated.

calibas 7y ago
That explains the difference between Type 1 and Type 2. I made sure to be clear which type I was talking about though.

Kye 7y ago

This kind of false attribution is how we got a market full of "low fat" foods packed with sugar. It seems like "don't eat too much sugar" should be a harmless, practical abstraction, but people will go off and eat a diet that still leads to type 2 diabetes while avoiding obvious sugars. And missing non-obvious ones. For example: A "healthy" serving of plain corn flakes with a serving of plain milk has lots of sugar in it. Foods can have low added sugar, or low some-kind-of sugar, and still lead to type 2 diabetes. Focusing on sugar will lead to the same health disaster that came from focusing on salt or fat.

gowld 7y ago
Your example is still high sugar. The anti fat crusade was a marketing lie sponsored by sugar /corn syrup manufacturers. No one's confused into thinking sugar is good, they just like eating junk food.

dghughes 7y ago

If you have diabetes you crave sweets due to having diabetes. Sugar doesn't cause diabetes. You eat food because you are hungry. Food doesn't not cause hunger.

calibas 7y ago
By all means, tell me what causes Type 2 diabetes then. The actual science is unclear, but it's linked to your diet.
- skohan 7y ago
  Yes - I mean if diet doesn't contribute to diabetes, then why has there been a correlation between obesity, type 2 diabetes incidence, and increased sugar and simple carbs in the standard American diet? I am not an endocrinologist, but the idea that habitual abuse of the body's insulin system causes a pathology in that system - at least in vulnerable individuals - is much more plausible than the idea that we're all getting diabetes from the water or something and that's why we're drinking soda and eating unhealthy foods. If there is some plausible alternate theory, or some contradicting evidence I would be very interested to hear it.
  - calibas 7y ago
    In my opinion at least, the science is clear. The human body isn't built for large amounts of heavily processed foods, and consuming them in excess causes a whole spectrum of health issues. This is all made worse because health science is heavily influenced by the same industries that profit enormously off of processed foods.
    - gowld 7y ago
      "Heavily processed" is not a scientific term. People don't eat boxes (but perhaps they should, because the actual danger in processed foods is removing fiber.) Fruit juice is terrible but not heavily processed. Sugar is not heavily processed. Baking cakes and deep frying everything at home is not heavily processed.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sithlord 7y ago

You dont get diabetes from eating "too many sweets". If you have a disposition to type 2 diabetes, and you eat too many sweets, then sure the symptoms are more likely to show sooner. A quit google, shows that ~40% of americans are obese, and around 9% of americans have type 2 diabetes. If eating poorly lead to diabetes (and didnt just expose the symptoms) then those numbers would be much closer.

nradov 7y ago
More than a third of American adults have prediabetes. The A1c dividing line between prediabetes and full Type 2 diabetes is essentially arbitrary. Eating too many sweets is absolutely a proven risk factor. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/prediabetes.html https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/prediabetes.html
everfree 7y ago
> You dont get diabetes from eating "too many sweets". If you have a disposition to type 2 diabetes, and you eat too many sweets, then sure the symptoms are more likely to show sooner. I don't think this is really a useful distinction. If you eat a lot of sugar and "get diabetes", i.e. it becomes clinically significant, then it would be just as correct to blame your sugar intake as to blame your genetics. It's quite known that sugar intake is strongly correlated with diabetes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584048/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584048/
- sithlord 7y ago
  I dont think anyone is arguing that sugar intake isn't correlated with type 2 diabetes surfacing. But, that same person would start showing eventually regardless, just may not be as soon. People with type 2 diabetes, genetically, have trouble removing glucose from cells, this is a fact, eating too much sugar, means that the cells become full sooner, and the body shows that it can't deal with it.
  - gowld 7y ago
    When it shows matters a lot. I hope my diabetes shows after I die.

adrianmonk 7y ago

They say, "Too much sugar, per se, won’t give you diabetes." The "per se" makes it plenty clear (to me at least) that their point is that sugar does not DIRECTLY cause diabetes.

calibas 7y ago
I'm not following this logic, we don't know what the direct cause of diabetes Type 2 is, but there's evidence it's linked to sugar. What this means is that you can't authoritatively state that sugar is the cause of diabetes. It does not mean that sugar has been proven to not be the cause.
- sithlord 7y ago
  type 1 diabetes - beta cells (which create insuling) in the pancreas get destroyed by autoimmune disease) type 2 diabetes - cells that hold glucose are resistant to insulin produced by the body. As in, Sugar almost certainly doesn't cause type 2 diabetes but causes the symptoms to surface because of the inability to remove the excess glucose from the cells.
  - calibas 7y ago
    None of that actually answers what causes insulin resistance to develop in type 2 diabetes. You can't claim that sugar "almost certainly" isn't the cause.