insulin. Over time, the pancreas can’t make as much insulin as people with this poor diet require. The resulting condition, known as insulin resistance, is the most common cause of type 2 diabetes.
“It appears that adult-onset diabetes is largely preventable,” says JoAnn Manson, MD, an endocrinologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “In our studies, we’ve found that 80 percent of adult-onset diabetes is linked to excess body weight. This is one case where heredity is not destiny.”
Biology is not destiny
Another study unveiled at one of the American Diabetes Association’s annual conferences supports Manson’s statement. An active lifestyle and healthy meals can greatly lower genetic susceptibility to diabetes, according to researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
They discovered that the prevalence of diabetes among Mexican Pima Indians, who do heavy labor and eat a traditional diet of low-fat unprocessed foods like beans and handmade