Is diabetes caused by eating too much sugar and junk food?
admin | Jan 01, 2011 | Comments 0
No. This is what we call an “old wives’ tale”: a story that mothers and
grandmothers used for many years to scare children into eating a
healthier diet. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think that eating a lot of
junk food is good for you. There are all sorts of reasons why it’s
healthier to eat food with more fiber and vitamins and less sugar,
sodium, caffeine, and fat than what you get in most “junk food.” But
no food by itself will ever cause diabetes. Many teenage athletes can
eat lots of candy, pizza, and potato chips, and yet they stay lean,
muscular, fit, and glowing with health. Part of the reason is that
they’re young and their bodies are growing. They also burn up all
those extra calories when they exercise.
Most of us find, as we get older, that if we keep eating the same
kind of food and in the same amount that we ate as teenagers, we
quickly feel dreadful. We gain weight, and we get stiff and sluggish.
The key thing is to balance how much we eat and how much we
exercise. If we take in more calories than we can burn up, day after
day, then we’ll gain weight. The body can’t tell where calories come
from. Whether we eat “healthy” calories or “junk” calories, we’ll gain
weight if we take in more of them than we can burn up through
exercise and other activities.
If your body is unable to make lots and lots of insulin, and you eat
lots of refined carbs, like candy and regular pop, you’ll certainly have
a higher blood glucose for the next few hours than someone who can
crank out enough insulin to handle the “junk food” load. But eventually, your blood glucose will return to normal. While it’s certainly easier for the body to deal with food that has more fiber and less sugar than most junk food, eating junk food does not directly cause diabetes. Diabetes happens when a person isn’t able to make enough insulin to keep their blood glucose normal.
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