Here are a few misconceptions about Diabetes Mellitus. I have attempted to correct these notions in this short write up. In this write-up, sugar and glucose are used interchangeably.

1. Sugar intake causes diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is not caused by sugar intake. It occurs because the body cannot produce enough insulin to make use of the sugar present in the blood. Insulin is a key that opens up the cells of the body to take up sugar from the blood. Thus, if insulin is not adequate little sugar will be taken up from the blood. And this will result in high levels of sugar in the blood. Diabetes is like “starving in the midst of plenty”. The sugar is needed and available in the body, but the body cannot make use of the available sugar because of problems with the actions of insulin. So the problem is not with the sugar in the blood but with inadequate insulin.

2. Diabetic patients must not take carbohydrates
This is not true either. Everybody requires carbohydrate and this includes people with diabetes mellitus. Carbohydrate is the main source of energy for the body. The requirement of carbohydrate is 40-60% of daily food intake. And this requirement does not reduce in diabetics. For people who are overweight it is recommended that the total amount of food/calorie intake is reduced and for that underweight, an increase in food/calorie intake is recommended in the right proportion.

read more on https://medicalinfosblog..com.ng/2016/10/five-lies-about-diabetes-mellitus.html

CC: lalasticala, dominique

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