Is it true that if there is a lot of sweets, diabetes will develop?

There is a common opinion: daily consumption of a large amount of sweet leads to the fact that a person is likely to get diabetes mellitus. We decided to check if such a concern has a scientific justification.

Many of us in childhood scared, What Excessive Eating sweets can provoke The development of a serious illness is diabetes. With such threats divided People on sites and forums, and some They continue to broadcast them to their children. Numerous media are asked by the same question: Meduza, TASS, "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Gazeta.ru" And "Arguments and Facts". Expert answers are trying to find sites pharmacies and medical clinic.

Diabetes (diabetes) - in fact, not one specific disease, but collective Name groups of pathologies of the endocrine system associated with a violation of the process of glucose assimilation. They develop due to insulin hormone failure and lead to hyperglycemia-a persistent excess of the norm of blood sugar. The causes of insulin deficiency can be two different states. At the first, the organism itself is not able to produce hormone in the necessary amounts, and with the second hormone enough is produced, but the body cannot use it correctly, that is, the so -called insulin resistance occurs.

Diabetes arising due to insufficient hormone products are called diabetes First type, and the condition caused by a decrease in the body's sensitivity to insulin is diabetes second type. These two diseases are most widely known, but there are other types of diabetes. For example, LADA (aka type 1.5 diabetes, or latent autoimmune diabetes of adults) or gestational SD (SD of pregnant women). IN diagnostic criteria The American diabetic association has listed more than ten forms of diabetes, as well as pathologies associated with its development, and drugs that can launch the disease.

By data WHO, 422 million people around the world have a diagnosis of diabetes, annually 1.5 million people die from the causes that are directly related to it. According to calculations Rosstat, in 2021, 5.1 million people lived in Russia with this diagnosis, in 2020 from the SD Died 51 200 people. That is, in the midst of an epidemic of a new coronavirus infection, when mortality has already increased, diabetes caused death for 2.5% of all dead Russians. 

SD - well -studied pathology, its first descriptions Meet Even in the treatises of ancient China, Egypt and antiquity, and the term itself was proposed by the Greek doctor Arenet from Cappadocia (II century BC). Therefore, the reasons causing it are also well known. 

So, diabetes of the first type occurs due to the destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas, which normally should produce insulin. These cells, in turn, can collapse due to several factors. Most main Of these, heredity. In particular, if the disease is diagnosed in both parents, then a child with a probability of 25% will also suffer from diabetes. Issued Not one dozen genes responsible for the predisposition to diabetes. There are assumptions that some viruses can also launch diabetes (in particular, cytomegalovirus, virus epidemic mumps, Rotavirus, and also virus Koksaki). However, convincing evidence of this relationship has not yet been received. It is also known that certain Chemical Substances They can selectively affect the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin, and thereby start diabetes. According to information Clinic May (USA), the incidence is also regional (the further a person lives from the equator, the higher the risk) and two age peaks (from 4 to 7 and 10 to 14 years). There is no excess that the cake can be launched in childhood as dangerous disease as diabetes of the first type, in scientific research.

SD of the second type usually develops In adulthood, but recently it has been detected in children. The main risk factors are excess body weight and obesity, sedentary image life, age older than 45 years, hypertension, the low level of “good” cholesterol and the high “bad”, as well as the already diagnosed diabetes among parents or brothers and sisters and belonging to a certain race (African American, indigenous residents of Alaska or Hawaii, Latin American and residents of the Pacific and South Asian regions have a higher risk of diabetes of the second type). There is also data that those who have been diagnosed with diabetes are more susceptible to diabetes depression or syndrome polycystic ovary. 

Less common types of diabetes also have nothing to do with sweets. Gestational sd arises In pregnant women, due to the increasing production of sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone, as well as a human chorionic gonadotropin) and cortisol hormone, which suppress the effect of insulin. Lada-diabetes is an autoimmune disease, in which the body attacks its own beta cells that produce insulin. Mody-diabetes arisesWhen, due to the genetic mutation of the pancreatic cell, insulin is made in insufficient amounts.

Thus, not one of the types of diabetes can be caused by the consumption of sweet in itself. At the same time, it is worth considering that the main risk factor for the second type is excess body weight and obesity. Excessive consumption of sweets can cause obesity. True, with the same success, extra pounds can be gained, unlimitedly consuming fast food, quick carbohydrates or simply not adhering to the basics of proper nutrition. 

Most of the untruth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Calculate your risk of developing diabetes of the second type
2. Sugar and diabetes. British Diabetic Association