Let’s first talk about what Diabetes is because I know for me when I was studying nutrition it was rather confusing. There are two types (type 1 and type 2). We are going to focus on type 2. The following is from webmd.com
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Causes of Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes is a number of diseases that involve problems with the hormone insulin. While not everyone with type 2 diabetes is overweight, obesity and lack of physical activity are two of the most common causes of this form of diabetes. It is also responsible for nearly 95% of diabetes cases in the United States, according to the CDC.
In a healthy person, the pancreas (an organ behind the stomach) releases insulin to help your body store and use the sugar from the food you eat. Diabetes happens when one of the following occurs:
- When the pancreas does not produce any insulin.
- When the pancreas produces very little insulin.
- When the body does not respond appropriately to insulin, a condition called “insulin resistance.”
Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes produce insulin; however, the insulin their pancreas secretes is either not enough or the body is unable to recognize the insulin and use it properly. This is called insulin-resistance. When there isn’t enough insulin or the insulin is not used as it should be, glucose (sugar) can’t get into the body’s cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, the body’s cells are unable to function properly.
The Role of Insulin in the Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
To understand why insulin is important, it helps to know more about how the body uses food for energy. Your body is made up of millions of cells. To make energy, these cells need food in a very simple form. When you eat or drink, much of your food is broken down into a simple sugar called “glucose.” Then, glucose is transported through the bloodstream to the cells of your body where it can be used to provide the energy your body needs for daily activities.
The amount of glucose in your bloodstream is tightly regulated by the hormone insulin. Insulin is always being released in small amounts by the pancreas. When the amount of glucose in your blood rises to a certain level, the pancreas will release more insulin to push more glucose into the cells. This causes the glucose levels in your blood (blood glucose levels) to drop.
To keep your blood glucose levels from getting too low (hypoglycemia or low blood sugar), your body signals you to eat and releases some glucose from the stores kept in the liver.
People with diabetes either don’t make insulin or their body’s cells no longer are able to recognize insulin, leading to high blood sugars. By definition, diabetes is having a blood glucose level of 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or more after an overnight fast (not eating anything).
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Okay – now that we’ve discussed diabetes let’s talk about the correlation between that and binge eating disorder. People who binge eat consume sometimes thousands of calories per binge which means the body just simply cannot process that amount of sugar. Things start to fall apart internally. Your pancreas is producing an insane amount of insulin to break down all the food you’ve eaten. Your body just simply can’t keep up that pace!
My brother has type 2 diabetes and he is in danger of losing his job because he drives huge freight trucks for a living. You can’t have a job like that and be insulin dependent. The DOT will not renew his truck license if he does not control his diet and stay on his pills. Right now he is okay but it could easily change.
My brother-in-law who works for Massport in Boston was put on a supervisors desk job for the exact same reasons except he became insulin dependent and lost his commercial license.
This is real life. This happens. This is what happens when the body is abused with food/drink.
So as you can see binge eating disorder can harm your body in different ways. You may think you are soothing your soul but in reality you would soothe your soul much better by treating your body well and understanding what happens when you binge eat.
You could easily find yourself in a hospital ER with a possible heart attack, kidney stones, gall stones, or be put on insulin for the rest of your life because you just didn’t realize at the time that you were in deed NOT getting the love and support you thought you were getting from food. Food cannot love you. Food cannot laugh with you or cry with you or cheer you on. That you must do with yourself and the ones who are close to you that you feel love from. If there is no one you can think of that fills this role then it is time to find a friend. It is time to find a caring supportive person and there are plenty of those people, as professionals, waiting to be there for you.
I am one of them.
I used to have binge eating disorder, anorexia, and bulimia so I truly understand what you are feeling.
Today I am living proof that you can absolutely move past this. It is why I dedicated years to working with people just like you so that you don’t have to continue your life in an unhappy way.
I know you may be trying to find comfort from food or may be using food because you are hurting from something else but please understand that by using food in a way it was not intended (to sustain life) can truly harm your body forever.
And when you do heal your binge eating disorder and are getting on with your life you certainly don’t want to have these horrible lasting side effects of food abuse hanging over your head. Binge eating is curable but some of the side effects are not.
Get to the root cause of your binge eating disorder so you are not faced with greater disabilities later in your life.