Suppose you have not been diagnosed with diabetes but are on the far edge of the normal scale. Some holloween candy is laying around and for several consecutive days I find myself reaching if for a peanut butter cup everytime I walk by the bowl. Maybe 10 per day. Could overloading on sugar have diabetic effects on the body even if you are not diagnosed with a problem?
Unless you have actual type I diabetes a single candy binge isn’t likely to do any damage the short term, although I’d imagine it could produce temporary acute symptoms. The scary complications like permanent vision loss or nerve damage are produced over the long term.
In theory, for people right ‘on the edge’ of developing type II diabetes, if the blood sugar goes up (for any reason), it can be self-perpetuating; a bit of a vicious cycle.
Elaborating a bit:
High blood sugar (however caused) tends to have two consequences:
- high blood sugar ‘poisons’ the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas
- high blood sugar causes/increases insulin resistance
So, on the one hand high sugar levels reduce the body’s ability to make insulin, while on the other, they also reduce the effectiveness of any remaining insulin. As a result, blood sugar levels may go even higher and, thus, the potential for a ‘vicious cycle’ is established.
The good news in all of this is that lowering blood sugar (however accomplished) will lead to:
- lowering the blood sugar ‘detoxifies’ the insulin-producing cells and thereby promotes their recovery and ability to make insulin as needed, and in the quantities needed
- lowering the blood sugar decreases insulin resistance, thereby allowing whatever insulin remains to work effectively
All that said, I doubt that several days of modestly high sugar levels would precipitate an inexorable descent to frank diabetes. But, if it’s ever going to happen, it would be most likely to do so in someone who’s already got some degree of reduced insulin secretion and insulin resistance (e.g. in people with so-called Impaired Glucose Tolerance, or in people with already established but ‘mild’ diabetes).
The big question is, are your parents diabetic? Type 2 diabetes tends to be passed on genetically. And your age. Type 2 likes is appear with people in their 40’s and beyond.
Good choice on going for the peanut butter cups! I would do the same.
How big are the peanut butter cups? If they’re the miniatures, Hershey’s informational site says there are five in a serving with 23 grams of sugar in five pieces. So if you eat ten a day, that’s 46 grams of sugar, which is pure carbohydrate. That’s about as much carbs as you should eat in one meal. If you’re pre-diabetic, or actually have diabetes, that’s a lot of sugar. If you’re just finishing off leftover candy, that’s probably OK, but I’d limit myself to half that amount.
Always put temptations away, not in plain view, That way you have to make a conscious decision to go and get one rather than mindlessly picking one up and stuffing it in your mouth. Works for me!
They are the single .6 ounce candies. I gave them to the neighbor and got rid of the tempation alltogether.
Sacrilege. :eek:
Not any more. We see kids with it. Family history can play a part, but IMO family diet and obesity has a huge impact as well. The primary reducing agent for insulin resistance is daliy exercise- like 45 minutes of it. Daily. Not the thumbs, either.
Disgusting things, peanut butter cups. :dubious: Peanut butter is good, chocolate is good. I prefer them separately. Salted caramels, now, the neighbor would have been SOL.
Peanut butter cups are the confection of the gods.
If you do it everyday for years and didn’t do anything to burn that calories. Chances are there might be a possibility.
Sure, but they’re not candy bars, ya know.
I’m insulin resistant, and three or four pieces of Halloween candy will send me into a reactive hypoglycemia down-spiral that I can’t recover from until the next day.
This year, I threw away the leftover Halloween candy. It’s just not worth it.