Re: Sugar overload
Let's not get too carried away, sugar does not necessarily cause type two diabetes.
I'm no doctor, but as an ex marathon man, nutrition has been as important to my performance as hard training so before everyone boycotts their nearest Tate & Lyle there are a few things you should consider....
As we get older some of our bodily functions are not as efficient as they used to be. Eyes and ears sometimes need a little help, muscles and joints are not as flexible as they were intended to be and even things we can't see or feel that are on the inside have deteriorated and are less able to cope with fats and carbohydrates as efficiently as they once did.
Cutting out sugar will not make an apeth of difference to anyone on this forum provided they are not obese to start with. The rise in diabetes in the young is however a matter for concern but sugar is only a small part of the problem. Sugar does make you fat if you eat too much and don't exercise, and a fat person is more likely to develop diabetes than a thin one. Yes I know that some thin people develop diabetes, and that just goes to show how complex the problem is...
The brain needs carbs! and if you deny or restrict them you will be in deep excretia.
Also, by denying or restricting carbohydrates your body will stop producing insulin, and that will make you more susceptible to diabetes....there have been experiments with fit healthy people who have restricted their diets and only eaten fats and proteins for one month and have ended up being borderline diabetic...
So before you start doing some DIY dieting, don't take my word for it....Ask your doctor, or read this.....
Insulin (from Latin insula, island)
is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets; it is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body.[5] It regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein by promoting the absorption of carbohydrates, especially glucose from the blood into liver, fat and skeletal muscle cells.[6] In these tissues the absorbed glucose is converted into either glycogen via glycogenesis or fats (triglycerides) via lipogenesis, or, in the case of the liver, into both.[6] Glucose production and secretion by the liver is strongly inhibited by high concentrations of insulin in the blood.[7] Circulating insulin also affects the synthesis of proteins in a wide variety of tissues. It is therefore an anabolic hormone, promoting the conversion of small molecules in the blood into large molecules inside the cells. Low insulin levels in the blood have the opposite effect by promoting widespread catabolism, especially of reserve body fat.
Beta cells are sensitive to glucose concentrations, also known as blood sugar levels. When the glucose level is high, the beta cells secrete insulin into the blood; when glucose levels are low, secretion of insulin is inhibited.[8] Their neighboring alpha cells, by taking their cues from the beta cells,[8] secrete glucagon into the blood in the opposite manner: increased secretion when blood glucose is low, and decreased secretion when glucose concentrations are high.[6][8] Glucagon, through stimulating the liver to release glucose by glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, has the opposite effect of insulin.[6][8] The secretion of insulin and glucagon into the blood in response to the blood glucose concentration is the primary mechanism of glucose homeostasis.[8]
If beta cells are destroyed by an autoimmune reaction, insulin can no longer be synthesized or be secreted into the blood. This results in type 1 diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by abnormally high blood glucose concentrations, and generalized body wasting.[9] In type 2 diabetes mellitus the destruction of beta cells is less pronounced than in type 1 diabetes, and is not due to an autoimmune process. Instead there is an accumulation of amyloid in the pancreatic islets, which likely disrupts their anatomy and physiology.[8] The pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes is not well understood but patients exhibit a reduced population of islet beta-cells, reduced secretory function of islet beta-cells that survive, and peripheral tissue insulin resistance.[5] Type 2 diabetes is characterized by high rates of glucagon secretion into the blood which are unaffected by, and unresponsive to the concentration of glucose in the blood. Insulin is still secreted into the blood in response to the blood glucose.[8] As a result, the insulin levels, even when the blood sugar level is normal, are much higher than they are in healthy persons.
The human insulin protein is composed of 51 amino acids, and has a molecular mass of 5808 Da. It is a dimer of an A-chain and a B-chain, which are linked together by disulfide bonds. Insulin's structure varies slightly between species of animals. Insulin from animal sources differs somewhat in effectiveness (in carbohydrate metabolism effects) from human insulin because of these variations. Porcine insulin is especially close to the human version, and was widely used to treat type 1 diabetics before human insulin could be produced in large quantities by recombinant DNA technologies.[10][11][12][13]
The crystal structure of insulin in the solid state was determined by Dorothy Hodgkin. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.[14]
As with most things in life, it's not just black and white is it......