Hold on a minute. You said, "Typically, it's the carbs and high fat/fried food diets that bring about diabetes" Yes, exactly! Sugar is one of the highest high-carb substances in the American diet (at least historically speaking). Many of my contemporaries consumed thousands of gallons of high-sugar sodas over decades of their life. I was told by multiple doctors and two dieticians that was probably the chief reason I'm a Type 2 diabetic.

@mischl Wow, that's a lot of soda! Yes, carbs and fried foods convert to sugar, but so do oranges and corn. When most people go to the "sugar causes diabetes" line, they're talking sweets, not fruit.

I come from a long line of diabetics on my mother's side and i have an infamous sweet tooth, but I don't have diabetes. My late husband rarely ate a sweet, didn't have it in his family, and developed diabetes a couple of years before his death. The answer, I think, is usually more complex than just sugar.

@Lauren when ancient man ate "fruits" ,they were much more like crabapples than Red Delicious.
An orange contains more sugar, more quickly metabolized, than a Snickers bar!
Stop blaming the victims of ancient survival adaptations!

@AnneWimsey Yep. And it's also blaming the ecomically deprived and those without health insurance who can't get treatment.

@Lauren Yes it is sugar more than the other carbs, (Though they can contribute.) because sugar is the most soluble, and the smallest molecule and the quickest to pass into the bloodstream. The damage to the pancreas is mainly caused by sudden high spikes, of such easily available carbs, slower to digest carbs which do not cause rapid rises in blood sugar, are much less harmful, especially when bonded to other food components.

@Fernapple Yes, were someone to ingest spoons of pure sugar (which, granted soft drinks pretty much are), then the effect would cause a sudden high spike for someone with Type 1 or uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes. My point was that the difference in impact between someone eating a piece of chocolate cake versus a quarter pounder and fries is negligible.

I grew up in a time when sweets were forbidden for people who "had the sugar" and watched sadly each year as my uncle wasn't able to have a piece of his birthday cake. There are new things being discovered all the time about the disease (which is wicked). One of the newer discoveries is that artificial sweeteners are just as bad as sugar to diabetics (probably for all of us), whereas 20 years ago they were integrated into recipes from the Diabetes Association.

There is a complex formula for becoming a diabetic, but it always requires a genetic component. Just eating a lot of sugar is not going to make someone a diabetic.

@Lauren That is not in line with the latest research, which says that it is frequent spikes which cause people to start with type two in the first place.

Heavy sugar usage over an extended period of time can weaken pancreatic response. Which means not enough insulin to process the glucose.

@mischl Everything I can find says diabetes is genetic. Sugar does not cause Type 1. Too much carbohydrates can cause Type 2. That would include sugar, milk, bread, yogurt, pasta, rice, bread, fruit, potatoes, and other starchy veggies, but sugar no more than the others.

@Sticks48 Yes it is sugar more than the other carbs, (Though they can contribute.) because sugar is the most soluble, and the smallest molecule and the quickest to pass into the bloodstream. The damage to the pancreas is mainly caused by sudden high spikes, of such easily available carbs, slower to digest carbs which do not cause rapid rises in blood sugar, are much less harmful.

@Fernapple It is still primarily a genetic disease. The reason I studied it is because I do and have always eaten a lot of sugar so I asked my doctor since I never have a problem with it and she explained it to me and I started looking into it on my own.

@Sticks48 Type 1 is certainly genetic, and there maybe, genetic precursors to type 2. Which being by far the most common is the type I was addressing. But the point is that not everone with the precursors for type two, will get it, and certainly diet is the main trigger. While most of the information which still lingers in the press and some medical sources, about foods other than refined sugar, is the result of a really evil disinformation campain by the sugar industry.