Misunderstandings about diabetes

Almost 3 million people in the UK have diabetes and yet despite this some people we spoke to said that diabetes was poorly understood by society as a whole. Several people expressed the view that they wanted some commonly-held myths and misconceptions about diabetes to be corrected. 

The current media portrayal of diabetes as a 'disease of fat people' was said by some people to be stigmatising and potentially damaging to their morale. Several people felt that the links made in the media between 'the obesity crisis' and diabetes was too simplistic. While they acknowledged that obesity was one of several possible contributory causes of diabetes, they said it was wrong for obesity to be portrayed as the main cause of diabetes. Many people said that they knew people with diabetes who were not overweight or obese.

Helen feels that media stories linking rising obesity levels with diabetes are counterproductive and don't fit her own experience.

Andy finds the language of media reports offensive and stigmatising.

Nicky knows many people with diabetes who are not overweight and believes that the main cause is genetic.

Many considered media representations of type 2 diabetes to be unnecessarily alarmist. Some felt that a more constructive approach would be to promote healthy lifestyles for all rather than sensationalising the potential harm of diabetes to certain groups of people.

Gugu points out that the emphasis placed by the media on diabetes and obesity sends out the wrong message.

Pamela thinks it would be more constructive to promote healthy lifestyles for everyone than to run alarmist ads aimed at particular groups of people.

Another fallacy about diabetes that needed to be put right, according to some people, was the mistaken assumption that people with diabetes should never eat sugar in any form, and that having diabetes was a matter of avoiding biscuits, puddings and sweets. Several people said that it might help prevent diabetes if young people could be better informed about food.

Mo says most of the people she works with don't understand much about diabetes and tend to make assumptions about what she can and can't eat.

There was also confusion, even among some of our respondents about the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes (see Diabetes UK website). Some suspected that type 2 was less serious than type 1, and that it was only people who had type 1 who were prescribed insulin. 

Wasim has tried to work out for himself why he was diagnosed with type 2 as opposed to type 1 diabetes.

Several men expressed the view that there was 'too much' emphasis on the possible complications of diabetes such as retinopathy and neuropathy (eye and feet problems). One man said he considered much of the information he had received as 'government propaganda' aimed at controlling his lifestyle; and another man said he felt that if people were repeatedly told they might lose sensation in their feet, they would begin to imagine it for themselves. 

Diabetes UK has a section on Myths and frequently asked questions that you might find useful.

Last reviewed November 2010.

Last updated September 2010.