While eating sugar, for example, doesn't cause diabetes, eating large amounts of sugar and other rich, fatty foods, can cause weight gain. Most people who develop diabetes are overweight. Scientists do not fully understand why obesity increases someone's chances of developing diabetes, but they believe obesity is a major factor leading to noninsulin-dependentdiabetes. Current research should help explain why the disorder occurs and why obesity is such an important risk factor. In people with noninsulin-dependent diabetes, insulin doesn't lower blood sugar, a condition called insulin resistance.
Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes.
A major cause of diabetes is insulin resistance. Scientists are still searching for the causes of insulin resistance, but they have identified two possibilities. The first could be a defect in insulin receptors on cells. Like an appliance that needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet, insulin has to bind to a receptor to function. Several things can go wrong with receptors.