According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34.2 million Americans had diabetes in 2018. Of these, only 1.6 million were type 1. Because type 1 diabetes is so much less common, many people have misconceptions about the disease.
Misconception 1: Type 1 diabetes is only diagnosed in children.
“The old name was juvenile diabetes,” says Robert Gabbay, scientific and medical director of the American Diabetes Association. “And there are still people who think about it that way. But it can develop at any age. “
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Misconception 3: Eating too much sugar causes diabetes.
It is true that in type 2 diabetes, obesity and inactivity are major risk factors, although other factors also play a role. But we have learned one thing for sure: neither diet nor exercise play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes.
Misconception 4: Diabetics cannot have sugar.
My daughter, who has always had a sweet tooth, was diagnosed a few days before Christmas. We bought their armloads of sugar-free candy from the diabetic section of the store. But we still don’t understand that it’s not just her sugar intake that she needs to carefully monitor, it was all carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, including sugar, break down into glucose after digestion.
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