Hi
@Mick1959,
First of all hugs from me. No one should have to go through what you had to listen to.
I'm not sure it is necessarily a matter of one-upmanship, but one of society at large. The other day, I followed a link to an older article in the New York Times. The article reported that about 15% to 20% of T2s are normal body weight. One of the readers' responses was that definitely those normal-weight T2s must have been misdiagnosed and if they were subjected to an antibody test, they would all turn out to be T1s. Mind you, this reader seemed to know quite a lot about diabetes -- but rather than change his thinking about T2s, he rather assumed that the medical professionals had misdiagnosed all these people. (I guess he never heard about the large number of Pakistanis and Indians being diagnosed with T2 and normal body weight.)
Anyway, I find there is quite convincing evidence that weight increase and lower activity levels are the result of insulin resistance rather than vice versa. This also makes sense to me on a logical level. Having insulin resistance and high insulin levels simultaneously will very likely lead to increasing hunger and lower energy levels. On the one hand due to the insulin resistance, insulin can't push enough glucose into the cells and your cells are "semi-starved" thus we experience hunger and lack of energy. On the other hand high insulin, doesn't allow us to access our fat stores and thus we have problems losing weight and also have a harder time using stored fat to make up for the lack of energy from glucose.
The problem though is that insulin resistance and high insulin levels exist maybe a decade before blood glucose levels rise significantly, so the weight gains precedes the diagnosis of T2 leading medical professionals and many researchers to think that it is the weight that causes T2. Maybe, this thinking will change once we start measuring circulating insulin levels and not only blood glucose levels.
Personally, I don't blame myself for my T2 diabetes. Definitely changing my lifestyle improved it, so it is certainly lifestyle-related. The issue though is that the lifestyle that causes it, is the one recommended by official bodies. So, can we be blamed for not knowing any better? I used to drink loads of fruit juice thinking it was healty. Now, I understand that this is probably one of the worst things we can do not only because of the glucose it contains, but also because the high levels of fructose and lack of fiber which lead to fatty liver. Also, I used to enjoy bread very much, which is also a no-no for me now.
Anyway, it will take a change of paradigm in thinking about T2 to change these prejudices -- and maybe some will never accept that insulin resistance is the root cause of T2 and not sloth and gluttony.