Does eating a lot of starch and sugar cause diabetes?

Specialist Doctor 1 Dinh Tran Ngoc Mai , Department of Nutrition - Dietetics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, answers: Diabetes mellitus, also known as diabetes, is a metabolic disorder characterized by blood sugar levels always being higher than normal due to the body's lack of insulin secretion or resistance to insulin or both, leading to serious disorders in the metabolism of sugar, protein, fat, and minerals. If blood sugar is not well controlled, it can lead to many serious complications affecting the cardiovascular, nervous, and digestive systems...

The following factors increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes:

- Family history of parents or siblings with diabetes.

- Personal history of gestational diabetes.

- History of cardiovascular disease due to atherosclerosis.

- High blood pressure.

- Little physical activity.

- Overweight, obesity.

- Impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose.

- Women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Eating too much sugar and starch without control causes excess calories, leading to overweight and obesity, which is one of the risk factors for diabetes. However, it is important to understand that starch is the main source of energy, accounting for 55-65% of the body's daily energy needs. Therefore, only when consuming excess starch, the amount of sugar absorbed quickly from cakes, candies, soft drinks, and even fruits exceeds the need to cause overweight and obesity over a long period of time will increase the risk of diabetes. The reason is that when the body absorbs a lot of sugar for a long time, it will lead to overweight and obesity, accompanied by insulin resistance - a hormone that helps balance blood sugar levels. When the body is resistant to insulin, reducing the ability to regulate sugar levels, the body will be more susceptible to diabetes.

Therefore, to prevent diabetes, it is necessary to have a balanced diet, reasonable between starch, sugar, protein and fat.

Specifically, it is necessary to choose good fats, complex carbohydrates with low glycemic index, eat lots of vegetables, and a moderate amount of fruits. In addition, it is necessary to have a healthy lifestyle, be active, exercise, control weight well and regularly check blood sugar for timely detection and treatment.