OK, you're on a diet. WE GET IT. We don't need a calorie breakdown...

I've become a Zero junkie. We keep a fridge in my office stocked with nothing but.

 

Depending on what you mean by the word related, that isn't necessarily true the way you meant it -- or the way people might understand it.

Type 2 diabetes -- the type we have started to see in crazy numbers over the last several decades -- is related to how your body uses insulin. Insulin is used to move blood sugar into cells. When you have type 2 diabetes, your fat, liver, and muscle cells suffer from insulin resistance, and the sugar builds up in your blood. Which means, once you have diabetes, yeah, you have to watch your sugar intake. Because too much sugar in your diet can send the sugar levels in your blood to levels that can cause diabetic coma.

But the fact that we are seeing diabetes in so many people in the first place is mostly due to the increased number of obese people. Obesity is a major cause of type 2 diabetes. When you are obese, your fat makes it harder for your body to use insulin correctly. And that is what causes diabetes in the first place -- and creates a situation where you have to pay attention to your sugar intake.

EDIT: After that food thread, just want to make sure I don't get jumped because of this post. It's a simplification to say that obesity CAUSES diabetes. It doesn't. But things that go hand in hand with obesity do cause diabetes. Which is why they correlate so closely. If you are obese, you are likely putting yourself at greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

 

I know the study you are referencing. It got a bunch of articles a month or two ago, and I read through it. Increased sugar consumption over the last several decades, independent of obesity rates, puts you at risk for diabetes. The same study took pains to point out that obesity is the MAJOR risk factor for type 2 diabetes. I just googled to find where in the NY Times you might be referencing. Here is a correction at the end of the link:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/its-the-sugar-folks/

 

They did a study that looked at processed sugar intake independently of other factors, including obesity, age, poverty, etc. And they demonstrated that processed sugar intake (which had increased dramatically over just the last decade in a bunch of places in the world) correlates with type 2 diabetes independently of obesity. And they concluded that the relationship should be looked at more closely.

That doesn't mean sugar, not obesity, causes diabetes. There is a strong correlation between obesity and type 2 diabetes rates, too. It has been demonstrated to greater effect.

The correlations don't necessarily mean either one is a cause. In the case of obesity, it's likely things that go hand in hand with what made you obese bring on diabetes -- and it probably relates to things like trans fats and their effect on your metabolism. But who knows?

Rather than trying to be scientists completely understanding mechanisms even the scientists don't completely understand, I think it is worth looking at the correlations. And not try to find the magic ingredient that has made diabetes rates skyrocket. Processed sugar is certainly toxic -- for A LOT of reasons that have been demonstrated. Our protection against it has likely been that it doesn't occur in nature. And to the extent that people ate sugar, it was pretty seasonal. When they could grow fruit, for example. With modern food processing, that has changed and there is so much added sugar in the modern diet.

At the same time -- and independently -- obesity correlates with diabetes. It doesn't mean you are going to get diabetes if you are obese. But it means that statistically you are at greater risk. That is what people should know.