Can you get diabetes from eating too much sugar?

“If you keep eating like that, you’re going to get diabetes.” If you’ve ever been scolded like this for enjoying a sugar-laden dessert, know that an occasional confection isn’t going to send you immediately into poor health. However, it is important to understand the consequences of the nutritional choices that you make, such as a diet that includes excessive amounts of added sugar. Here’s what you need to know about the connection between sweet treats and diabetes. 

Can you get diabetes from eating too much sugar?

The short answer is no. Eating sugar won’t make you develop Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. However, your diet can contribute to risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes mellitus. Specifically, your weight is influenced by diet.

 “While dietary sugar isn’t the direct cause of Type 2 diabetes, a high-sugar diet can lead to obesity and other negative health outcomes,” says William Dixon, MD, a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University and co-founder of Signos. “Sugary foods and ultra-processed foods often contain more calories and are easier to over-eat than other foods, which can contribute to weight gain.” Lifestyle factors including sedentary lifestyle and obesity are risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes.

Eating excess sugar does cause other health conditions, such as heart disease and systemic inflammation, which is linked to issues such as arthritis and cancer.

Does sugar cause diabetes? 

Sugar consumption does not cause Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when your immune system prevents your pancreas from producing enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes is caused by consistently elevated blood sugar levels—either your pancreas can’t make enough insulin to keep up or the high blood glucose levels damage your cells and prevent them from reacting to insulin properly. When your cells can’t respond to insulin and regulate blood sugar it’s called insulin resistance.

Sugar and insulin resistance

Eating too much sugar can lead to muscle, liver, and fat cells that are less sensitive to the effects of insulin, or insulin resistant. This can cause consistently abnormally high blood sugar levels. 

Here’s how it works. Normally, your body breaks down the food that you eat into sugar. When the sugar hits your bloodstream, your pancreas releases a hormone called insulin to help you either use or store that sugar as energy. When you eat a lot of sugar all the time, it puts a strain on the whole process. Your pancreas tries to produce enough insulin to move all that sugar out of your bloodstream and into your cells. But over time, the cells become indifferent to that insulin release. Your pancreas pumps out even more insulin to try to reach the cells, but it doesn’t work as effectively as it should. 

“Insulin has less of an effect if the body is resistant to insulin,” explains Timothy Wong, MD, a family medicine doctor and medical expert for JustAnswer. “It’s like inflation, where you have the same amount of money but can’t buy as much with it. The pancreas….has to work harder to control blood sugar in those with insulin resistance and eventually, it cannot keep up.”

Adds Dr. Dixon, “When you have insulin resistance, you will have more glucose circulating in the bloodstream, causing all of the damage you see with diabetes.” It can also lead to a condition called prediabetes. When you have prediabetes, your blood sugar levels are elevated but they’re not quite high enough to meet the threshold for Type 2 diabetes. However, research suggests that up to 70% of people with prediabetes eventually go on to develop Type 2 diabetes. 

Does the type of sugar matter? 

There are two main types of sugar—natural and added sugar. Your body processes them in the same way, but natural sugar often comes along with other nutrients and fiber, such as in fruit, starchy vegetables, dairy, and grains. These types of carbohydrates provide energy for your body. Added sugar—refined sugar and artificial sweeteners—can add empty calories to your diet and contribute to weight gain. The human body needs the sugar that comes from foods, but “we do not need processed sugar to meet our daily physiological needs and functioning of the body,” says Chhaya Makhija, MD, endocrinologist and founder of United Endocrine and Diabetes Care in central California. Experts suggest restricting your intake of added sugars.

The 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that Americans limit the amount of sugar they consume to less than 10% of their daily intake of calories. Meaning, if you normally eat 2000 calories per day, you should only consume a maximum of 200 calories of added sugar. That’s about 50 grams—or 12 teaspoons—of sugar per day. The American Heart Association suggests aiming lower, with a recommended 25-gram (6 teaspoons) limit for women and 36-gram (9 teaspoons) limit for men. For children two and older, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends a daily limit of 25 grams of added sugar.

How to eat to lower your risk of diabetes

Use these strategies to reduce your added sugar intake—and your risk of developing insulin resistance, heart disease, or inflammation.

• Consider desserts with added sugar a “sometimes” food. “As a general rule, sugar is a sweet treat and should be treated as that, a treat that does not happen daily,” says Briana Costello, MD, an interventional and general cardiologist with the Texas Heart Institute. 
• Replace added sugar with healthy carbs, such as berries. “Fruits are and should be one of the main components in our daily meals,” says Dr. Makhija. “Fruit is a power-packed food and provides nutrients beyond the ‘sweet’ component of it.”
• Read food labels carefully. When buying packaged foods, carefully scan the label and look for added sugars. Added sugar can go by many names. Look for words like high fructose corn syrup and sucrose. Then, avoid them when you can—or at least reduce how often you consume them. “Checking the back of any protein bars or healthy bars or cereals may shock you, regarding its sugar content,” says Dr. Costello.
• Watch out for hidden sugar. It can lurk in seemingly healthy items, like yogurt or bread. Condiments like ketchup often contain more sugar than you might realize, too.
• Skip sweetened beverages. Research suggests that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages puts you at higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. And the drinks may pack more sugar than you realize—exceeding your daily recommended intake. For example, one 12-ounce can of a leading brand of cola contains 39 grams of sugar, and a 7.5-ounce can contains 25 grams. Similarly, fruit juice has a lot more sugar than whole fruit, so you may want to cut back or eliminate these drinks, too. 
• Choose whole foods as much as possible. Opt for unprocessed foods like fresh fruits and non-starchy vegetables (which can improve insulin sensitivity), as well as lean meats and whole grains. While these foods contain naturally occurring sugars, they also have fiber and minerals that slow down sugar absorption. 

Don’t stop with adjusting your diet! Eating healthier goes hand-in-hand with two other frequently recommended strategies for diabetes prevention:

• Exercise regularly. Getting regular physical activity is a great way to reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes. Aim to get 30 minutes of physical activity five days per week. 
• Lose weight if you are overweight. Obesity is a known risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, but losing some weight can reduce the risk. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) recommends losing just 5%-7% of your total body weight if you’re overweight, to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes. 

“It is well known that exercise, physical movement, weight loss, and a balanced diet low in saturated fats and high in fiber, complex grains, and protein can improve insulin sensitivity, which in turn improves blood glucose control,” Dr. Makhija says. These are good habits to get into because lifestyle changes like healthy eating and getting more exercise can be used as a diabetes management strategy, as well as a prevention strategy.