Purebun.com – 3 Factors Triggering Type 2 Diabetes Apart from Excess Sugar Consumption. Diabetes is a disease characterized by high blood sugar levels, so many people wonder if consuming sugar can be a trigger.
While it is true that eating too much sugar can increase the risk of diabetes, there are many other factors that also play a role in type 2 diabetes, and sugar is only one of them.
Many other factors are the cause. If you already have a genetic risk, have an unhealthy diet, and are overweight, you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes early at a young age.
To avoid that, you should also understand the role that sugar plays in type 2 diabetes, it helps us take a quick look at how blood sugar, or blood glucose, can get too high.
Blood sugar is most affected by carbohydrates found in everything from fruit, potatoes, bread, candy and soda. During digestion, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and released into the bloodstream.
That’s a good thing because glucose is our body’s main source of energy. Your body’s cells must have energy to function, but that same glucose can be toxic at high levels in the blood.
According to Diana Licalzi, a nutritionist in Boston, glucose needs to leave the blood and enter the body’s cells to function as an energy maker. This is where insulin comes in. Produced by the pancreas, insulin acts like a lock, unlocking cells to allow glucose to enter.
Insulin Resistance
In type 2 diabetes, the ability of cells to respond to insulin is impaired and sugar remains in the bloodstream instead of being efficiently delivered to cells. This is known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can be caused by many things, including being overweight, an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, and certain medications.
Being overweight increases the risk
If you have hereditary diabetes, there may not be much you can do about it. But if it comes from factors you can control, maintaining a healthy weight is paramount in preventing disease, delaying its onset, or slowing its progression.
“Carrying excess weight, especially around the stomach, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, as well as other diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and even stroke,” says Licalzi.
According to the American Heart Association, men should aim for a waist circumference of 101.6 cm or less and women should aim for a waist circumference of 88.9 cm or less. Those who weigh less, but have a large waist circumference means more belly fat and so are also at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Healthy eating is more than just sugar
Sugar isn’t the only culprit contributing to the rise in type two diabetes in the US. “The overall quality of the standard American diet is responsible for the development of type two diabetes or prediabetes,” said UCLA dietitian Dana Hunnes.
“His typical diet is high in refined carbohydrates, fat, animal protein, and salt, and low in fiber, water, fruits and vegetables.” he added.
That high calorie count promotes weight gain. Meanwhile, all simple carbohydrates like french fries, chips, sugar-sweetened drinks, pasta, and bread made from white flour cause a rapid rise in blood sugar.
When that happens, your body struggles to produce more and more insulin which fails to lower blood glucose because the cells ignore it.
Over time, the spike tends to make your insulin-producing cells shrink and your body stops making insulin. If you have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, it means that every time you eat, your blood sugar keeps going higher and higher unless you control it with diet, exercise, and medication.