However, reading your post, I do feel I need to ask: why exactly is it that you’re talking about sugar in the context of obesity, when most other people seem to be arguing over whether or not sugar gives you diabetes? Is it because obesity leads to diabetes? Can you kindly clarify that link for me? Thanks!

yeah sure! i’ve just searched for an article on this and this was the first result: https://www.uhhospitals.org/blog/articles/2023/03/can-eating-too-much-sugar-cause-diabetes

the gist of it is: there’s two types of diabetes: Diabetes 1 and diabetes 2, which have very different mechanisms. both have the same symptoms, which is that your body fails to regulate blood sugar levels on its own, but the reasons behind this are very different.

• people with diabetes 1 just don’t produce enough insulin because the body part that normally produces insulin (pancreas) is broken. this is an organ defect and can be caused by an immune system that attacks the own body cells. bad stuff; typical onset is in childhood and is life-long. probably mostly genetic, other risk factors unknown / poorly understood.
• people with diabetes 2 do have enough insulin in their body, but the cells don’t respond to it. normally, healthy cells would start absorbing sugar from the bloodstream once they feel the presence of insulin. but with diabetes 2, they don’t. so there is insulin but the body just doesn’t respond to it. this leads to unstable blood sugar levels.

the type that people usually talk about is type 2 diabetes. this is the kind that depends on food intake, and excessive calorie intake is a large contributing factor. basically, cells try to stabilize their internal sugar levels as well, and if the cell is full, it becomes more hesitant to respond to insulin and take in even more sugar. now, if you’re obese in general, the cells are typically full of sugar, so they respond less well to additional insulin and hesitate to accept even more sugar, which is what causes the diabetes symptoms.

now, eating a lot of sugary stuff is bad for two reasons: for one because it makes type 2 diabetes more likely, and for two because if you already have diabetes, it makes the symptoms worse. since the body has an even more difficult time to keep the blood sugar levels stable and not spiking.

(type 2 diabetes is the one that’s more common btw; type 1 diabetes is only in a rare few cases)