Can one eat unlimited
 

sugar and carbs and NOT end up with diabetes?

My father ate unlimited amounts including alcohol and lived to 95.

My mother also but no alcohol and lived to 90.

I never heard the word diabetes in my family.

Thinking about this as I'm working to cut WAY back on sugars/carbs and sodium, as well.

Thanks for comments.

Dear Caroline,

As long as one's body can handle an unlimited amount of sugars and carbs, they will NOT develop diabetes.

That is NOT to say that one "should" consume unlimited quantities and "hope" their body can handle it.

The simple answer is, ingesting carbs and sugars does not CAUSE diabetes.

It depends what kind of diabetes you mean. Type 1 diabetes typically presents in childhood/adolescence. It is an auto-immune disease with some genetic risk factors but as far as I know diet is not a risk factor for it.

Type 2 diabetes typically presents in adults. Although there are some genetic risk factors for it, environmental effects are also important - being overweight is a notable example.

As far as carbohydrates are concerned, eating things which contain a lot of glucose or sucrose as well as foods which contain processed carbohydrates (eg, white bread, white rice) are risk factors. This is because their carbohydrates are rapidly converted into glucose during digestion (they are high GI foods). The rapid spike of glucose leads to what is called insulin resistance which can progress to Type 2 diabetes.

In contrast, eating foods which contain unprocessed carbohydrates (eg, wholemeal bread, brown rice and wholemeal pasta) is fine in moderation. That is because their glucose is released relatively slowly during digestion (they are low GI foods) which means that the risk of insulin resistance is reduced.

In addition, foods which contain unprocessed carbohydrate are good sources of fibre, which is protective against bowel cancer.