Endocrinologist Koteshkova: sweet food is not a leading factor in the development of diabetes 
Sweet food is not a key factor in the development of diabetes. Olga Koteshkova, head of the diabetes education and treatment department at the Diabetes Center, endocrinologist at the endocrinological dispensary of the Moscow Healthcare Department, told RIA Novosti about this.
Koteshkova, answering the question of whether a person will get diabetes if they eat a lot of sweets, explained that it depends on the sweets themselves. She noted that if sweets are combined with fat, then it enhances insulin resistance. At the same time, the doctor added that diabetes mellitus in this case can occur when there is a hereditary predisposition, or a person's body weight and physical activity increase sharply. However, not all 100 percent of cases of the development of this disease are associated with the use of sweet foods, she emphasized.
The endocrinologist also explained that the key factor in the development of the disease is the patient's body weight: with weight, the risks of the disease increase. She added that the prevention of diabetes is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet that includes vitamins, minerals and vegetables in the family.
Earlier, an international team of researchers found that the level of follistatin in the blood can predict whether a person has type 2 diabetes, 19 years before the onset of the disease. Specialists have monitored the health of more than 5.3 thousand patients in Sweden and Finland for four to 19 years. “We found that high blood levels of follistatin could predict disease onset up to 19 years of age, regardless of other risk factors such as age, body mass index, blood glucose, diet and physical activity,” said lead author works, Associate Professor of Lund University Jan de Marinis.