Eating fat (not sugar) causes diabetes

When I encourage people to eat fruit, some are worried about the sugar. Turns out that animal fat causes diabetes, not sugar, according to physician Neil Barnard, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, as quoted in the documentary, What the Health.

The key point, which I initially missed, is that fat causes or starts diabetes, then the body can no longer tolerate sugar. Animal fat builds up in cells and prevents them from absorbing sugar, which then builds up in the blood, which is diabetes.

Sugar seems like the culprit since it drives up blood sugar levels, but it’s the (animal) fat the obstructed the body’s ability to process the sugar.

For people who already have diabetes, sugar must be avoided until they deal with that condition by possibly switching to a plant-based diet as recommended by Neil Barnard. For people who don’t have diabetes, then one need not fear that the sugar in fruit will cause diabetes.

Here’s the transcript of what Neil Barnard says in the movie:

Here are images from the documentary. The first image shows fat (yellow) sticking to the outside of cells thereby preventing sugar (blue) from entering the cells. The sugar remains in the blood causing problems throughout the body.

Here’s the trailer for What the Health and the website.

WHAT THE HEALTH from AUM Films & Media on Vimeo.