Jim Carlock wrote:
I am a diabetic. It wasn't the turkey nor the stuffing that did
that though. It was drinking a Coca Cola one day, during
a momentary weakness that brought about the ill effects.
;-) If I had continued on drinking ONLY water in my life
at that point and eating ONLY vegetables... who knows...
I drank one Coke and it raised my blood sugar enough,
where I became extremely thirsty and once that started... I
it became an endless circle of raising my blood sugar... that
went on for weeks until I lost 20 pounds and my eye
sight started going funny and I decided it was time to visit
a doctor. :-)

When type II diabetes is suspected, and the patient doesn't walk into
the office with an already abnormally elevated blood glucose level, or
an elevated HA1C, the method of testing is to have the patient drink a
highly concentrated glucose solution, and observe changes in the blood
sugar levels. Drinking the test solution doesn't give someone diabetes.
It is merely a test.

Drinking a Coke, and then falling into a cycle where your thirst
increases, and you continue to drink more sugar-infused beverages is the
same thing, just less controlled. And because it goes on for a longer
period of time, may result in other symptoms beyond the thirst. The Coke
didn't cause diabetes anymore than the test solution causes it. A
non-diabetic could chug Coke day in, day out and not become diabetic
because of it. (Of course a normal person wouldn't desire that much
Coke, either.)

My diabetes was first diagnosed one summer. One very hot summer during
which I thought my thirst was caused by my excessive sweating. Or at
least I did until I actually realized how much of the liquid was leaving
in a way other than sweating. By that time I was drinking about 3/4
gallon of soft drinks, along with a good 1/2 gallon of fruit juices a
day. Add in food, and my diet was about 7000 calories a day, but I lost
20 pounds that summer. But what I ate and drank didn't cause the
diabetes.

After I went through a rough couple of weeks weaning off of so much
sugar (and caffeine) a day, I was able to "control" my diabetes on a
normal diet, with no additional exercise. Of course as I got older,
lazier, fatter, and tempted by high carb foods more often, that wasn't
so any more. But none of those things *caused* my diabetes. I would have
been, and was a diabetic all along.

It was an old wives tale that too much sugar caused diabetes. Too much
sugar makes the diabetes symptomatic if it's already there. It doesn't
have that effect if there is no diabetes. The old wives tale was more
faulty logic. Coloration was mistaken for causation.

But maybe you'd rather be safe than sorry... or smart, and continue to
think that Coke caused your diabetes.

--
Warren H.

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