I watched a new shop being stocked recently. Deliveries consisted of ice cream, cakes, biscuits, soft drinks, sweets, crisps. chocolate etc. I reckon 80% of the floor space was stocked with sugary rubbish.! If you stop by a foodstore or garage forecourt for a quick healthy snack you’ll be hard pressed to find one.

I’d say to anyone with the slightest reason to suspect you may have diabetes, get down the doc’s and get tested. Takes 2 mins, and once you’re diagnosed they (and you) can do something about it. If you ignore it, you’re potentially building up a whole load of complications while you’re going untreated. Far better to make lifestyle changes and pop a couple of pills a day now, rather than end up with serious health issues later. And no, you don’t have to be overweight to get diabetes. Weight is a risk factor, but so are genetics, unusual sleep patterns (eg shift workers have a higher prevalence), stress, and a number of other factors. So if you’re overly tired, overly thirsty, having trouble healing cuts, or any of the other symptoms at the link, get to the docs – http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Introduction-to-diabetes/Signs_and_symptoms/

It’s no picnic being diagnosed with a life-long condition, but believe me, you’re far better off knowing you have it.

These findings really are nothing new.

My dad has type 2. He complained of sore ankles and feet for about 2years. 3 doctors couldn’t find the problem. He visited a 4th a doctor, an Indian chap and within 20mins, the doctor knew what it was. My point being is, that there could be a lot more with it and they have not been diagnosed.

Yes there might be a rise in the cases of Diabetes in Ireland and indeed worldwide but this is not all down to diet. Diet may have an impact on Type 2, but it’s not the only cause. My four year old has type 1 diabetes (diagnosed at 20 months). I can assure you he did not contract this awful disease by his lifestyle choices. Neither did any of the other children living with type 1 diabetes in Ireland. These children can look forward to a life time of daily injections of insulin and do not need the perception that they or their parents inflected this on them by their lifestyle choices. There is a difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 also known as Juvenile-onset diabetes is caused by the immune system attacking the pancreas. You cannot prevent it by adopting a healthy diet, exercising regularly, or living a healthy lifestyle. There is currently no known cure.

I agree that people seem to cause their own health problems because of their lifestyle. But I used to swim a mile very couple of days, ate porridge for breakfast and lots of fruit and veggies for main meals and I still developed diabetes. Don’t smoke or drink either.

I don’t disagree with the conclusions arising from this research, however some of the stats here are very misleading. The circa 30% increases mean nothing. For example, a lot more people die in France compared to Ireland simply because if you measure mortality in this way you don’t account for population differences. The best measure of change to compare two populations–in this case: Ireland now and Ireland in the future–is the rates, not levels. So the headline should say a 19% increase, and the change in older adults is not 30%, but a far smaller 2%.

If people are eating more carbohydrate than anything else then what do you expect? And in the last 30 years fat consumption has gone down and diabetes has gone up.

What impact are medications such as antidepressants having on obesity rates?

This country is to fat and too drunk and this is the reason why are hospitals are overloaded. Look at the poor range of products in our supermarkets – great choice if you want any type of biscuit, chocolate or fizzy drink. Not so great for other stuff. Even the recent controversy over the Centra “Mickey money” offers – what was more shocking that the beer offer was that the range of food that was on offer on the flyer.

I would be a big believer in personal responsibility but obesity related illness is costing the taxpayer a fortune so perhaps the “Nanny State” has to step in here to get a grip on the problem.

Stay away from carbs of all sorts. I allow myself on weekends but during the week id eat a tiny amount per day. Feel much much better from it.

How long now before sweet stuff goes the way of smokes and beer? How long till the first overweight person gets refused when buying foodstuff that contains to much sugar? Government has no power to govern so becomes a nanny instead, what happened to lifestyle choose, what happened to making your own mistakes,

As Dave has pointed out… it IS self inflicted… in the like of shoving deep fried battered mars bars from the local chipper in your mouth!? ( they should be banned in my opinion) but people on medication can result with weight gain. people should watch their intake, go for even a 30 min stroll a day. if you want a fry up as a treat on sundays, grill the meat, fry the egg in rapeseed oil. and DONT AVOID GOOD CARBS… you need food for your brain! tis the most hungry organ in your body. nom noms!

We have a lot of gyms and gym equipment in public parks plus a huge amount of great sports facilities combined with a lot of promotional advice on healthy lifestyles yet we are fat as fools and getting fatter. It is a bigger problem for hospitals than most other illnesses yet we are growing larger by the day. Is it just gluttony? As a catholic country then there seems to be a lot of sinners out there. We were thinner when we didn’t have the gyms and all the advice so I wonder if we are going in the wrong direction. It hasn’t worked and clearly won’t work so change the plan. Eat half the amount of everything and you will be half the weight. Trouble is people like being obese and fat – that is a fact. Look around you. Some say it’s addiction yet the same people have a choice of addictions like jogging or swimming. They choose eating – strange how people take the easy option.