Does a high sugar diet really lead to diabetes?

3 Comments

1. Dr.B says:

   August 21, 2010 at 12:44 am

   A high sugar diet definitely leads to diabetes mellitus type II. DM Type I results from a lack of insulin production since the Beta cells are basically killed off. This used to be referred to as juvenile diabetes.

   Insulin is a hormone that shoves sugar into most body cells. A high sugar spike in blood leads to high insulin spikes in blood. Hormones and their cell membrane receptors can go through up-regulation or down-regulation. Down-regulation makes the receptor less sensitive to the effects of the hormone so you need more hormone to get the same result. More hormone means more down-regulation, more down regulation means you need more hormone which leads to more down-regulation. It becomes a continuous cycle. Before full DM Type II is reached, people get Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X).

   Same idea happens when someone takes recreational drugs. Eventually the same dose doesn’t work anymore cause of down-regulation and you need more alcohol, heroine, cocaine or whatever to get the same result.

   At the same time, the beta cells in the islets of langerhans can be overburdened or burnt out for having to make too much insulin. Eating a low sugar diet would not cause them to atrophy since you cannot completely avoid carbohydrates. Sugar just spikes insulin levels where complex carbs make levels rise and fall.
2. Award Winner says:

   August 21, 2010 at 12:44 am

   Ummm… lol… NO

   Read the book SUGARBUSTERS

   When you think about "sugar" do not just think about the crystalized white stuff. "Sugar" is in bread, fruits, vegetables, just about everything. We as a society eat enough sugar naturally that we don’t need all of the sweets and candies.

   There’s a cool graph in the book that shows that before the widespread use of "refined sugars", diabetes was found in less than 1% of our society. Sugar (also in carbohydrates) makes people fat and sickly. It stimulates the pancreas into creating insulin. Read up.
3. Levi says:

   August 21, 2010 at 12:44 am

   No.
   Obviously, you need to intake SOMETHING that can be reduced to pyruvate. Not enough sugar is very bad and kills you (ATP and NADH are important for staying alive). On the other hand, an increase in Glucose intake does not proportionally increase either glucose metabolism or Beta Cell production in the pancreas.
   If your glucose intake exceeds your pancreas’s ability to produce insulin, you become hyperglycemic.
   If you make a bunch of insulin to counteract this, your cells reduce production of GLUT4 receptors to use insulin, making you more hypoglycemic.
   Intaking glucose beyond what you can use+what you can make into fat makes you increasingly more hyperglycemic, not less.