Sugar causes diabetes, not weight gain (VIDEO)

A new study confirms that sugar, not obesity is behind type 2 diabetes.

The findings claim that despite the common correlation between diabetes and weight in casual conversation, it's actually sweetened sodas that have led to a worldwide spike in the disease.

In the study, sugar was 11 times stronger than total calories in explaining diabetes rates around the world, reported KQED.

“This is the same level of proof that was available to us when we implicated cigarettes as the cause of lung cancer back in the 1960′s,” said study co-author Robert Lustig, reported KQED.

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"Those countries where sugar went up showed increases in [diabetes] rates. Those countries where sugar availability went down, showed decreases in rate.”

Researchers from Stanford University and UC San Francisco found that sugar intake accounts for one third of new cases of diabetes in the US, said the New York Times.

That number is about a quarter in other countries around the world.

That said, obesity and sugar consumption are usually present together but this study reaffirms it is the latter rather than the former that plays the greatest role in diabetes.

The findings were published in the journal PLoS One.

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