What is it with diabetes that makes people think they know more about it than the people who have the disorder. People hear the word diabetes and flock to compete with who can be the most ableist.
Found a video of a girl showing off Diet Soda detector strips (if there's any diabaddies that see this and want it I can link them, they're super helpful), and half of the comments were "you're diabetic you should just be drinking water..." First of all, not only are you just wrong, but you seriously expect diabetics to just never enjoy themselves? Ever?.
Saw another comment under a video about type 1 saying "you did this to yourselves. you ate too much sugar and you got yourself into this situation." And it's just so funny because they're Wrong™️. Type one diabetes is autoimmune and fully hereditary, and not at all effected by diet.
I mean, I know the answer. It's diet culture. People on their fancy diets think they're a superior human being because other people are "unhealthier" than them, and they hear diabetes and think "big fat and lazy with a bad diet" and think they're allowed to walk all over them since they're so superior. Despite the fact that it's a completely false stereotype that doesn't apply to most diabetics.
And btw please do not come under this post saying "but other disorders have that too" this is a vent post about diabetes. Do not derail.
The other thing about diabetes type 2 is that what the evidence actually suggests is that there's an underlying metabolic disorder that causes weight gain and sugar craving before actual diabetes develops.
A lot of type 2's start out as hypoglycemic -- their pancreas is over-producing insulin, causing blood sugar crashes. Insulin stuffs sugar into fat cells, causing people to get fat, if there's too much of it. The overproduction of insulin is a response to slow-growing insulin resistance. Because sugar is a vital part of human energy, people who cannot easily process sugar due to insulin resistance and insulin over-response may crave sugar in order to have enough energy to function.
So you didn't get diabetes because you got fat. You got fat because you were on track to get diabetes. and nobody is addressing the metabolic disorder. Hypoglycemics can be quite skinny -- I was for years. But if you're skinny, nobody is concerned about the fact that you are passing out when you haven't had enough to eat. Because only being fat is ever a medical problem. People who are "normal" weight obviously have nothing wrong with their metabolism whatsoever. :-(
To add somewhat to the above, type 2 is genetic. You can’t get it solely from diet alone. As a specialist nurse crudely but not entirely incorrectly once said to me “if it was just diet then every fat/unhealthy person would have diabetes”.
And now going back to the top point, I know exactly what video op is referring to and she made a different video a few weeks prior specifically about harmful comments to t1d’s and instead of getting the point, heaps of comments were basically to the effect of “but we can bully t2ds bc they brought this on themselves, they deserve to be mocked”. HUH. DO YOU HEAR YOURSELVES.
I have many chronic conditions. T1D is absolutely the worst by the landslide it’s not even close. I would not wish this on anyone. If you ever think you’d like to make a comment on someone else’s diabetes, of any type, do not do it. If you are a diabetic I trust you to be sensible, otherwise, keep your mouth shut.
