Type 2 diabetes is not a disease.
It is a ‘walking deficiency’ syndrome – so claims Sir Muir Gray, a leading medical researcher.
Gray decided to rattle cages last week by insisting it was a result of modern environments. Essentially, we’re gorging on bad food and lying on the sofa moaning about the plot of Broadchurch. Gray’s a big fan of switching off the TV.
On the face of it, this looks like an academic trotting out a neat soundbite to help sell his book. But there is much to what he says.
It costs an estimated £10bn a year to treat type 2 diabetes in Britain. And it’s not going to decrease. Globally the numbers of people with diabetes have nearly quadrupled since 1980. Figures suggest this is made up of around 85 per cent with type 2.
In Britain, we have a bizarre relationship with food
None of this can come as any surprise, really. In Britain, we have a bizarre relationship with food. The confected, baloney furore over the National Trust losing the word Easter from their egg hunt glossed over a key point. There is a national drive to get kids out hunting chocolate and eating as much processed sugar as they can cram in. The case for the dangers of far too much processed sugar is already
well established.