The common belief is that if a person is obese, he or she is most likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Or if someone is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes they have to be obese.

However, researchers at the Steno Diabetes Center in Denmark object to this common belief based on their findings in their recent study published in the journal PLoS Medicine.

For many years now, the medical world has been “beating a public health drum” about how obesity increases type 2 diabetes risks.

Danish scientists wanted to investigate this common notion by reviewing data from a research involving 7,000 Brits collected from 1991 to 2009.

At the beginning of the research, none of the study participants suffered from type 2 diabetes. During the course of the eighteen year-long study, 645 participants developed the disease.

From the group that developed type 2 diabetes, researchers categorized three distinctive groups based on their weight:

1) ‘Stable overweight’ but NOT obese: This group was far the largest one (604 people). People in this group were overweight (not obese) during the study but their BMI (Body mass index) remained relatively stable. Researchers noticed only a very slight impairment of insulin resistance, five years before the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

2) ‘Progressive weight gainers’: This group had just 15 people. People in this group kept gaining weight throughout the study and had a significant increase in their insulin resistance through the years leading to the development of type 2 diabetes therefore easiest to diagnose early.

3) ‘Persistently obese’: 26 people. These individuals were critically obese throughout the entire research time. They did not suffer from significant insulin resistance. However, some of their insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas were completely damaged.

Researchers explain that the connection between obesity and type 2 diabetes is way more complex than we previously thought. Not all obese people develop type 2 diabetes and most people who have the disease are not obese (rather overweight).

Another interesting fact that has not been specified until now is that the majority of individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes did not get it until being overweight for a number of years. And these individuals did not suffer from significant insulin resistance spikes, which is a common pre-diabetic risk factor.

Researchers conclude that other important factors like genetics and the type of body fat in people also influence the development of type 2 diabetes. Generally, individuals who have lesser brown fat (the healthy type of fat) and carry more weight around the waist are more likely to get type 2 diabetes.

However, even with more information emerging about type 2 diabetes, a million dollar question “What really causes this disease?” still remains partially unanswered.

The good news is that if you suffer from type 2 diabetes, reversing it is relatively easy. All it takes are these 3 simple steps…