The most profound and statistically significant scientific research done in the area of nutrition and diabetes was performed by T. Colin Campbell. Dean Ornish and Neal Barnard have also published in this area.

Type I diabetes correlates strongly with milk protein (casein) consumption. Type II diabetes is strongly correlated with the consumption of sugar, refined carbohydrates, fructose, and animal proteins. In other words, the standard American diet (SAD) sets you up for diabetes.

The healthiest diet is a whole food plant based diet as described by Dr. Dean Ornish and others. You should try to stay away from processed foods because they generally are not healthy. Vitamin supplements are not a good substitute for fresh vegetables. Leafy green vegetables are a superior source of calcium and other nutrient and should be consumed instead of dairy products.

Diabetes is a disease of affluence. You can avoid type II diabetes and other diseases of affluence by avoiding all source of animal protein and eating a healthy well-balanced diet of raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, bean, and whole grains. Stay away from processed foods.

ADDED NOTE:

By the way, contrary to the advice of the previous poster, most artificial sweeteners used in soft drinks are carcenogenic and neurotoxins. Avoid all natural and artificial sweeteners. You need to train your taste buds to avoid sweet tastes, fats, and salts. It takes about a month of avoidance to develop a new preference. Research veganism, raw foods, and macrobiotics. Avoid packaged foods and drinks as much as you can.

Diabetes causes Neuropathy — pain in the arms and legs. But OTHER nerves are also affected, so the Neuropathy ALSO affects the eyes, brain, digestion, heart, and sexual organs.

Diabetes causes high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These, working together, cause heart attacks and strokes. High cholesterol is also associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, so Diabetes is linked to ALzheimer’s Disease.

Diabetes causes blindness. Diabetes causes a failure for wounds to heal. Unhealed wounds can become infected, leading to amputations.

And the LONGER you are diabetic, the more likely it is that you will have these other diseases.

In fact, diabetes is often NOT diagnosed until the patient complains about vision problems, sexual problems, or has a heat attack or stroke.

Now, ALL of those other disease have other causes, too. So having chest pains does NOT mean that you are diabetic. But it is VERY important to have a simple blood test done once a year to catch diabetes before it become too serious to handle.

Be SURE that you get a complete physical (including blood work) EVERY YEAR, sometime around your birthday. MAke the gift of good health your own birthday gift to yourself! Make SURE that the doctor does the A1C test, a simple test for diabetes. It IS a blood test, and requires a blood sample, but since you are having a yearly physical, the doctor should ALSO be testing liver and kidney functions, so no big deal.

IF the A1C test says that you have diabetes, then you have caught it early, and SIMPLE change in your lifestyle can prevent it from getting worse. However, wait until you have already had a stoke or heart attack, and being diabetic is the least of your problems.

Diabetic Diet:
NO sugars, avoid sweets, candies, desserts, and canned fruit. No canned fruit juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, or colas. Drink ONLY diet colas, and us4e ONLY artificial sweetener.

Low carbohydrates. Avoid starchy food (rice, corn, potatoes, breads, crackers, gravies, and pastas). Eat more fibers (green leafy vegetables), and add some protein (lean meats, like chicken or fish) for more taste and more “satisfaction”).

GET MORE EXERCISE. WALK. Use the stairs, play volleyball, Bicycle. Swim.

Keep your weight NORMAL (ask your doctor what normal for you is).

heart disease, vascular disease, blindness, kidney failure, just to name a few. Please see your doctor ASAP and get treatment if you suspect that you have diabetes. It is a very serious illness if left untreated.

Well if you have type 1 (most likely at 17) then untreated it will lead to extreme weight loss, coma and death … of course the symptoms get pretty hard to ignore before it gets to this stage.

High blood sugar over a long period of time (untreated type 2 and uncontrolled type 1 and 2 ) can cause nerve and kidney damage leading to blindness, unhealing ulcers, heart problems etc. But this doesnt happen overnight but over many months and years.

If you look after your health in the long run, you should have nothing to worry about.