165: Type 2 Diabetes: What it is and What Causes It

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• In this episode, Dr. Steve breaks down type 2 diabetes in simple language and explains why almost everything we've been taught about it is backwards. He shares why insulin resistance—not "high blood sugar"—is the true root cause, how our modern food choices drive the problem, and why medications and "eat less, move more" usually make things worse instead of better. You'll learn the four key truths about insulin, glucose, and fat that can help you start reversing type 2 diabetes naturally with food and lifestyle.​

Big picture & why this matters

• Why Dr. Steve went into medicine—and why he left the hospital system after 29 years—because of the misinformation around type 2 diabetes.​

• How type 2 diabetes rates have exploded worldwide and why this is tragic when the condition is preventable, reversible, and often medication-free within weeks.​

• Type 2 diabetes as an "umbrella disease" driving kidney problems, liver disease, heart disease, dementia, and more.​

Key #1 – The true root cause

• The root cause of type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance, not high blood sugar.​

• High blood sugar is a symptom that shows up decades after insulin resistance begins.​

• What insulin is: a hormone your body releases whenever you eat or taste something sweet to tell your body what to do with glucose.​

What insulin does with glucose

• Four main jobs of insulin with the glucose you eat:

  • Uses a tiny bit for immediate activity right after eating.​

  • Refills limited glycogen "storage tanks" in the liver (about 10 percent) and muscles (about 1 percent each).​

  • Dumps extra glucose into the urine once blood sugar is too high.​

  • Turns most of the extra glucose into fat (triglycerides) and stores it in fat cells.​

• Why "eating fat makes you fat" is a myth; high insulin from glucose is what forces fat into fat cells.​

Key #2 – Insulin decides fat storage or fat burning

• High insulin = your body stores fat and cannot burn fat out of fat cells.​

• Low insulin = your body burns fat out of fat cells for energy and cannot store new fat.​

• Why the real key to weight loss, energy, and diabetes reversal is keeping insulin low, not counting calories.​

What insulin resistance really is

• Insulin resistance explained as "stuffed fat cells" that can't take any more triglycerides.​

• As more fat cells fill up all over the body, the body must pump out more insulin to force fat in, which is pre-diabetes and insulin resistance.​

• After 10–40 years of this, fat starts getting stored around organs (liver, heart, etc.), and that's when major damage begins.​

Healthy, pre-diabetes, and diabetes (the progression)

• Healthy: low insulin, low glucose.​

• Early pre-diabetes: high insulin, normal glucose—usually missed because insulin is almost never tested.​

• Full diabetes: high insulin and high glucose after years of stuffed fat cells.​

• Why common medical definitions of "pre-diabetes" (using A1C only) are late and driven by marketing, not true root cause.​

Key #3 – It's not about lowering sugar, it's about not raising it

• The only meaningful way blood glucose rises is by eating it (carbohydrates and sugars).​

• You have very little stored glucose in the body (about two teaspoons in the blood, roughly 2,400 calories max in glycogen).​

• Stress and cortisol can temporarily raise blood sugar by releasing stored glycogen, but glucose is meant only for short "fight or flight," not all-day energy.​

Why "eat less and exercise more" fails

• Exercise burns some calories but rarely reaches the stored fat in fat cells because glucose stores are usually full.​

• Exercise often makes people hungrier when they are running on glucose as their main fuel.​

• The real solution is to stop constantly feeding glucose into the system so insulin can stay low and fat can be burned naturally.​

Key #4 – It's not about calories, it's about fuel source

• Calories from glucose vs calories from fat act very differently in the body.​

• Glucose: quick energy, limited storage, meant for emergencies.​

• Fat: long-lasting energy, huge storage capacity, and also needed to build cells, hormones, and absorb fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.​

• Being 10 pounds overweight means roughly 40,000 calories stored in fat that can be tapped when insulin stays low.​

Food categories and insulin

• Plant-based foods: always contain carbohydrates, and the basic unit of carbohydrate is glucose—so plants raise glucose and insulin to varying degrees.​

• Animal-based foods: made of protein and fat; fat does not raise insulin, and protein raises it only slightly compared to carbs.​

• Man-made/chemical foods (boxes, bags, bottles, cans): ultra-processed carbs plus sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and seed oils—these are the biggest drivers of high glucose, high insulin, obesity, and organ damage.​

Problems with the standard medical approach

• Most training and guidelines focus only on blood sugar, not insulin or insulin resistance.​

• Common advice: "Eat the same carbs, just less, and exercise more," which keeps insulin high and the disease progressing.​

• Most diabetes medications either raise insulin or increase insulin sensitivity, which only helps stuff more fat into already full fat cells and worsens the long-term problem.​

Hope and next steps

• Type 2 diabetes is preventable, reversible, and you have direct control by changing what you eat, especially cutting out glucose-heavy foods.​

• Low-carb, whole-food eating (focusing on real food, not processed boxes and bags) is the key to lowering insulin and allowing the body to burn stored fat.​

• Next episode will cover specific steps to reverse type 2 diabetes and get off medications safely.​

Call to action 

​If you'd like even more information on this topic, you can go to Amazon or Audible and pick up my book, Your Plate Is Your Fate.

Check out our website: drstevehughlett.com

You can also check us out on Youtube.

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Disclaimer:  The information provided on this channel/podcast/publication is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other qualified healthcare provider. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet, exercise routine, or medications.

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