Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

206 ALICE CALLAHAN, PHD, HEATHER LEONARD, MED, RDN, AND TAMBERLY POWELL, MS, RDN
Figure 4.20. In type 2 diabetes, the cell does not respond appropriately to insulin, so glucose is
stuck outside the cell.
The result is the same: high blood glucose. At this point, you may be diagnosed with a
condition called prediabetes. The pancreas tries to compensate by making more insulin, but
over time, it becomes exhausted and eventually produces less insulin, leading to full-blown
type 2 diabetes. According to the CDC, 100 million Americans are living with diabetes (30.3
million) or prediabetes (84.1 million).
Although people of all shapes and sizes can get Type 2 diabetes, it is strongly associated
with abdominal obesity. In the past, it was mainly diagnosed in older adults, but it is
becoming more and more common in children and adolescents as well, as obesity has
increased in all age groups. In the maps below, you can see that as obesity has increased in
states around the country, so has diabetes.