# Eating/drinking sugar does not give you diabetes! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 20, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098 "2012-01-20T03:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/21 "2012-01-20T15:27:16Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > There is some possibility that the people who say “that giant soda is going to put you into a diabetic coma!” or “hello diabetes” are not being serious. They be indicating that they know eating sugar isn’t the best thing for you, and expressing it in a humorous way. Perhaps they are more interested in repressing their own craving for sugar than yours. Exactly - It’s like when I walk into the diner, and order three over easy eggs, grits, patty sausage, and biscuits and sausage gravy, and my wife tells me she can actually hear my arteries hardening. Crap - now I’m hungry. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/22 "2012-01-20T15:38:21Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Eating excessive carbs is the single factor that determines whether it will happen or not. If you don’t eat excessive carbs, you won’t develop type 2 diabetes. Genetic predisposition just determines what “excessive” means for you. > … As just mentioned in your “Ask the …” thread, “excessive carbs” is a excessively simplistic. Excessive simple and refined carbs. Large amounts of carbs package in real foods [with fiber](http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/7/1979.abstract) are _protective_ from developing type 2 diabetes. ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/23 "2012-01-20T16:45:49Z")
DSeid, that study reads to me like having fiber protects from some of the effects of the glucose on the blood sugar, not that carbs and fiber protect you from type 2 diabetes. I’m not a doctor or anything, but the simpler response would be to stop eating so many carbs rather than trying to shield yourself from them with more fiber. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/24 "2012-01-20T16:57:37Z")
Also, this just in- heart attacks do not actually come on plates. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/25 "2012-01-20T17:37:43Z")
That study showed that a diet high in real foods that are high fiber reduces insulin resistance in at risk individuals. It is just one example of a large body of work that demonstrates that such a diet is associated with reduced risks for diabetes and heart disease. The mechanism does seem to specifically include the fiber, as demonstrated both by studies that [increase soluble fiber](http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/29/4/775.long)and demonstrate improved insulin sensitivity, and those that compare isoenergetic diets that differ only in the balance of [high cereal fiber (HCF) carb versus high protein (HP)](http://www.ajcn.org/content/early/2011/06/01/ajcn.110.004374) and show improved insulin sensitivity in the HCF group. > [@](#): > > Despite their beneficial effects on weight loss and blood lipids, high-protein (HP) diets have been shown to increase insulin resistance and diabetes risk, whereas high-cereal-fiber (HCF) diets have shown the opposite effects on these outcomes … Insulin sensitivity expressed as an M value was 25% higher after 6 wk of the HCF diet than after 6 wk of the HP diet … Greater changes in insulin sensitivity after intake of an isoenergetic HCF than after intake of an HP diet might help to explain the diverse effects of these diets on diabetes risk. To emphasize - in that last study the diet with more carbohydrate, but high fiber carbohydrate, had better insulin sensitivity that the diet with less carbohydrate and more protein. Please note, the intent of this post is merely to disabuse the notion posited here that carbs _per se_ add to type 2 diabetes risk, not to advocate for or against any specific diet plan. High fiber carbs are protective against diabetes risk, at least in part due to the fiber itself, and likely also do to other factors that travel with fiber in those foods. Carbs are no more evil than is fat or protein. The issues are what sorts of each and in what balance, and, for all I know, there may different best answers for different people. As far as the op goes, yes, a diet long term high in simple carbs, and giant sodas are a poster child for that, is, over time, “Hello diabetes!” if you have any genetic predisposition for it at all. Getting kids hooked on candy and sweetened beverages as a matter of habit, as much of our society does, will indeed give many of them diabetes. Not that minute but cut people some slack for a little hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/26 "2012-01-20T17:49:36Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I am really tired of otherwise smart and informed people saying shit like “that giant soda is going to put you into a diabetic coma!” or when presented with a sweet dessert “hello diabetes”. I’ve seen people say a piece of candy is going to give a child diabetes. Dear **grude** I know! That’s the worst thing in the history of humanity! Signed, **Hyperbole** ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/27 "2012-01-20T18:21:13Z")
> [@wmulax93](#): > > Dear **grude** > > I know! That’s the worst thing in the history of humanity! > > Signed, > > **Hyperbole** It really is worse than Hitler! But for some people they are starting to believe it, humor turned to urban legend. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/28 "2012-01-20T18:26:03Z")
> [@randomface](#): > > I’m not a doctor or anything, but the simpler response would be to stop eating so many carbs rather than trying to shield yourself from them with more fiber. The point is that not all carbs are equal. 12 ounces of Coke has around the same number of carbs as a large banana. 4 Oreos have the same number of carbs as a cup of cooked steel-cut oats. Though some diabetics go the route of going ultra-low-carb, the majority of doctors and diabetics go with a diet that contains healthier carbs rather than no or ultra-low carbs. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/29 "2012-01-20T19:11:46Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > He had exactly four things he could eat without going into shock and possibly dying. Four things. He probably “willed” that to go away, daily. Hope he’s still alive and wasn’t bored to death with his diet. > [@Ambivalid](#): > > (bolding mine) > > Ugh, wow, good luck with keeping his sanity with that diet. When I was on a allergy-desensitization diet, I had to go 10 days a month on a ridiculously-strict diet that allowed only rabbit, venison, carrots, tapioca starch and a couple other items (it was a long time ago). It was the most difficult thing in the world to try to stay all ten days on that bland food. By like Day 7 of nothing but the same five things, my body felt like it was literally rejecting it. It took a monumental effort just to choke it down. It felt like eating sawdust. I don’t know how someone does it. Huh; that reminds me of a news story I read many years ago. Some woman spent decades consuming nothing but egg whites and white wine, and managed to inadvertently discover her very own vitamin deficiency disease by running out of a vitamin that no one else has ever managed to run out of. Because the vitamin in question is so common and needed in so small an amount that only such a limited, odd diet continued for so long would deplete the body’s reserves (supposedly, even the occasional glass of _red_ wine would have held enough, for example). Not particularly relevant, but interesting to me. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/30 "2012-01-20T23:40:38Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Umm… Potatoes weren’t recorded at all in England until 1585, at which point they were regarded as odd and possibly poisonous; they were only grown- as a new, fashionable crop- from 1597. > > Mary Queen of Scots died in 1587. Maybe it was bread? I can’t remember which biography I read that in. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/31 "2012-01-20T23:48:01Z")
Missed the edit window. But apparently my “remembry” was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098/32 "2012-01-21T00:38:33Z")
So, I think we can distill down a proper response to the thread title: Yes, it does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-drinking-sugar-does-not-give-you-diabetes/610098.md?page=1)