The Truth About Type 2 Diabetes and Food Addiction

Type 2 Diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions in the world… yet most people have no idea how early the damage actually starts.

By the time someone is finally told, “Your blood sugar is high” or “Your A1C is elevated,” their body has already been fighting behind the scenes for years and sometimes decades.

The deeper truth most people never hear is that for a huge percentage of people with type 2 diabetes, the root issue is their relationship with food. It’s not genetics, not “bad luck,” Not aging, and Not “it runs in my family.”

This is a hard message, but it’s a hopeful message because what you can take responsibility for, you can also change.

This blog post is your wake-up call… and also your invitation to real food freedom.

The Quiet Damage That Starts Long Before Diagnosis

People assume diabetes shows up out of nowhere. One year the labs are fine… the next year they’re not, but it’s not that random.

Type 2 diabetes is the end result of years of the body trying to compensate for chronically high blood sugar.

Here’s what usually happens long before a diagnosis:

• Insulin creeps higher while blood sugar still looks “normal.”

• The body becomes more insulin resistant.

• High blood sugar silently damages nerves, kidneys, and blood vessels.

• Fatigue, cravings, brain fog, mood swings, and weight gain start creeping in.

The symptoms get blamed on stress… age… hormones… anything except the real culprit.

By the time the doctor says, “You’re diabetic,” the body has been waving red flags for years.

Your A1C is not just a number, it’s a three-month average that tells you how much sugar your bloodstream has been swimming in. A rising A1C means the body has been overwhelmed for a long time.

Understanding this early damage is empowering because it shows that:

You are not “fine” just because symptoms haven’t shown up yet and you are not doomed just because a diagnosis finally did.

Let’s Talk About the Part Nobody Wants to Admit

Let’s address the elephant in the room.

Inside the diabetes world, especially in the Facebook groups, I see this over and over again:

People are convinced their diabetes is no fault of their own.

They’ve been told:

• “It runs in families.”

• “It’s genetics.”

• “You just got the short end of the stick.”

• “Plenty of thin people are diabetic!”

• “My doctor said it’s not my fault.”

However, here is a truth most doctors avoid because they either don’t know/understand or they don’t want to hurt feelings:

For the majority of people, type 2 diabetes develops because their relationship with food has been out of control for a long time.

It’s not because they’re bad people, because they’re lazy or because they lack discipline. It’s that food addiction and emotional eating have been normalized and minimized.

Most people never learn how:

• Sugar hijacks dopamine

• Refined foods overstimulate hunger hormones

• Carb cravings mimic addiction cycles

• Binge–restrict patterns overstress the pancreas

• Late-night overeating spikes blood sugar for hours

• “Treats” become daily coping tools

• Holidays/weekends become metabolic disasters

Because all of this is so normal in our culture, people don’t recognize it for what it is:

A serious, progressive, biological, emotional, and behavioral cycle that breaks the body over time.

If this is hitting a nerve… that’s okay. It means you’re waking up.

When Diabetes and Food Addiction Coexist, the Cycles Feed Each Other

Here’s the pattern I’ve seen for over a decade coaching people with disordered eating and diabetes:

1. They get diagnosed, they panic and make changes, their A1C improves and then they feel proud… hopeful… relieved. The emotional eating piece remains unaddressed so then old patterns creep back, blood sugar rises again and they feel ashamed and confused.

That isn’t a lack of willpower or “falling off the wagon.” It is the nature of addiction and emotional eating. If the root isn’t treated, the symptoms always return.

You can eat “perfectly” for a few weeks, you can follow keto for 30 days. and you can cut out sugar until the next emotional storm hits, but if you don’t know how to manage:

• Stress without food

• Loneliness without food

• Anxiety without food

• Fatigue without food

• Boredom without food

• Holidays without food

• Weekends without food

…you will always go back to food in an attempt to comfort and soothe you and for someone with type 2 diabetes, that means the A1C will always creep back up.

This is why so many people say:

“I improved for a while, then my numbers got worse again.”

Of course they did, because the food issue was never the real focus.

This Isn’t About Blame, It’s About Responsibility and Hope

I’m not here to shame anyone, that’s not what I do, but I am here to tell the truth because nobody gets better by being coddled, lied to, or tiptoed around.

Food addiction is real. Emotional eating is real. Binge/restrict, start/stoo/start over cycles are real and using food for self-soothing is real. Pretending these things are “just bad habits” keeps people sick.

Here’s the empowering part:

If your relationship with food is what contributed to your type 2 diabetes, then healing your relationship with food can ALSO reverse it.

That is incredible news and It means:

• You’re not powerless.

• You’re not genetically doomed.

• You’re not stuck.

• You’re not your diagnosis.

That said, you do need honesty and you do need recovery, not another diet.

Your Body Wants to Heal But You Must Change What’s Driving the Disease

Type 2 diabetes responds FAST to the right changes.

When someone finally addresses their food addiction patterns and not just their diet then everything begins to shift:

• Cravings settle

• Binge urges drop

• Blood sugar stabilizes

• Weight releases naturally

• Energy increases

• A1C falls

• Confidence grows

• Hope comes back

Your body is unbelievably resilient and It has been trying to protect you this whole time, but recovery, not attempts at moderation is what brings healing.

Recovery starts with telling the truth that diabetes didn’t “just happen,” but healing isn’t out of reach either.

If You’re Ready to Break the Cycle

I work with women every single day who are stuck in this exact loop of being scared, overwhelmed, ashamed, and convinced they “just need to try harder.”

No.

You don’t just need more discipline, you need recovery, you need truth, you need support, accountability, a plan and you need to heal the relationship with food that’s been running the show.

Food sobriety changed my life. It has changed the lives of my clients and it can absolutely change yours.

If you’re ready to stop fighting with food, to stop fighting with your blood sugar and ready to reclaim your health and peace then I invite you to take the next step with me inside my Food Freedom coaching and community.

You don’t have to do this alone and you don’t have to stay stuck in cycles that are absolutely reversible.

To hear me talk directly about this connection between your health and relationship with food go listen to Food Freedom Podcast Episode 215: Type 2 Diabetes and Food Addiction-The Truth Nobody Told You