Diabetes is a condition in which the missing of insulin (type 1 diabetes) or a partial deficiency of insulin plus a state of malfunctioning of this insulin (insulin resistance) causes a buildup of glucose in the blood and a deficiency of glucose into the cells with its attending cellular sofference.

There are some important points that can be summarized as follows:

1. diabetes has many causes. The most important are the absolute deficiency of insulin (type 1 diabetes), the partial deficiency of insulin and the insulin resistance or both (type 2 diabetes). Therapy changes according to the different underying situation
2. the diffuse concern on the reduction of sugar in diabetes must be interpreted with caution. The point in diabetes is to deliver the sugar into the cells, not to deprive the organism of an essential nutrient. It is obvious that sugar must be ingested in the proper quantity to avoid an increase in weight, and must be primarily in the form of nonrefined sugar. There are also cases in which the ingestion of sugar must be reduced to avoid an increase in triglycerides.