Could all this sugar (fake sugar?) kill me?

It might not kill you but it could potentially give you diabetes. And diabetes can kill you prematurely if you don’t regulate it correctly. I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in March of 2006. I had no history of it in my family and I was then (and now) only 145 pounds. I didn’t meet the profile, at all, for someone who should have contracted diabetes.

The only thing my doctor and endocrinologist could come up with was, I had such a horrible diet of junk food, fast food, lots of sugar and carbs and such, that my pancreas just stopped working correctly and stopped producing enough insulin.

My former diet was fast food at least 3 times a week, 2 to 3 cans of Coke a day, too much candy, ice cream, potato chips, and a host of other nutritional disasters.

Just some food for thought for you. (Pardon the pun)

Oh gosh, that sounds too much like me for it to even be a funny coincidence.
I’m around 145. 6 foot 2, and I eat fast food 3 – 4 times a week, along with atleast 80 oz of soda a day, and gooood amounts of junk food and such.
I need to get this sorted out, I don’t want to end up with diabetes.

If you intake alot of sugar very fast (i.e. 52 oz Dr. Pepper and a lot of pixie sticks) Then your pancreas has to release ALOT of insulin to digest the large amount of sugar that suddenly appeared in your system. More insulin than necessary, actually. What ends up happening is all the sugar gets digested by the insulin, but then there is a lot of insulin left with no sugar to eat, as a result of your pancreas overproducing to deal with the sudden surge. Your body needs to do something with this extra insulin, so your body ends up wanting MORE sugar about 3 hours later. Your brain tricks you into a false hunger to compensate. The way to deal with this is eat sugar in small amounts, and spread out, or just eat more complex carbohydrates that break down slower. But large amounts of sugar quickly will just make you hungrier for MORE sugar later, which ends up being a vicious cycle of sugar craving that leads to adult onset diabetes. And large-bodiedness.

@Breefield. Yes, your current circumstances appear to be very similar to mine at the time I contracted diabetes. I wouldn’t wish diabetes on anyone, ever, and you might want to consider some dietary changes at this point in your life to prevent such a thing happening to you. As a precaution, if you have even the slightest symptoms of what a dibetic feels during high blood sugar episodes, it might be a good idea to get a check up with your doctor because some people diagnosed early (it’s called Pre-Diabetes) can take measures early to steer clear of Type II Diabetes that could occur later.

Here is an article from the American Diabetes Assocation concerning this.

@Bluefreedom: The info in that article was very helpful – thank you for attaching the link. I just had a friend (also seemingly very healthy) who was diagnosed last week w/ Type II – so this is timely.