Why Does Obesity Cause Diabetes

The truth is that it has not been clinically proven without a doubt that obesity causes all types of diabetes. The reason that this association is made is that a vast majority of diabetics are overweight. At the same time, many overweight individuals develop diabetes. Scientifically, even though this is a major coincidence, it is not a solid fact as there are obese people who have not contracted diabetes.

The reason for this connection is because people who are overweight are that way because they have made bad food choices. Instead of consuming a healthy mixture of the right fruits, vegetables, fiber and protein, they consume too much of the wrong things. They also eat in excess. When you do not have a sufficient level of activity to burn off these extra calories it turns to fat and complicates matters even more.

Researchers believe that fat causes the body to become insensitive to insulin due to the release of a specific protein. This means that it takes more insulin to maintain glucose levels for an overweight person throughout the day than a lean one. In reaction to this, the pancreas does the only thing that it can to compensate for this and that is to produce even more insulin.

Sometimes the body develops insulin resistance, a condition where it simply doesn't respond to the effects of insulin. In this case, cells do not absorb insulin efficiently, which causes an increase in sugar levels. Again, this is often in response to excess weight.

However, we know that excess weight does contribute to type 2 diabetes. This becomes a bigger issue when genetics are thrown into the mix.