Five Environmental Causes of Diabetes

By David Spero Type 2 diabetes is usually blamed on people's genes or their behavior, not on the environment. But diabetes rates are soaring worldwide. Genes could not change that fast. Here are five ways environmental changes are causing diabetes. This information is updated from my book Diabetes: Sugar-Coated Crisis, published in 2007. Since then, things have changed, mostly for the worse. Hopefully, knowing how the environment makes people sick will help you protect yourself against it. Unhealthful food. People were not made to eat large quantities of refined carbohydrates — the "white things," such as sweets, breads, pastas, etc. These foods don't occur in nature and do not trigger normal digestion and absorption. Refined carbohydrates. Carbs that have had their bran and germ layers — which contain most of the fiber and nutrients — removed are widely available, cheap, taste good, and may well be addictive. They raise your serotonin and dopamine levels, making you feel good for a short while. Then your blood glucose drops and you feel miserable again, and you need another fix. Barriers to physical activity. People used to move their bodies in the course of work, food gathering, transportation, and recreation. Most of this is now done by machines, so you have to consciously seek physical activity. This is much harder when you have too many other demands, not enough support, and mixed motivation. (“Life is hard enough already without having to exerci...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs