Maybe there is a relationship between sugar consumption and our ability to cope with stress? I found, that when I stopped eating sugar, it wasn't exactly a big revelation, but merely a subtle change (mentally), that made me somehow less anxious and when I had irrational anxiety "attacks", I was able to suppress them better.

I don't have any better way to explain this psychological stuff, but for me there was a change for sure. A subtle one, but it made a big impact on my life long term.

The reason I stopped eating sugar was that I saw a pattern in my moods depending on what I ate. I initially thought that it my eating habits were dictated by life circumstances and that life circumstance were dictating my mood, but two things stood out, which left me to try going without sugar.

First I wanted to loose weight, so I went on a protein only diet during a very stressful time and it made me feel pretty good. Second, I was feeling even better, when I was fasting. Third, I had my worst "breakdown", when I was training for a marathon (I ran many, so it wasn't marathon stress) and ingested a lot of sugar.

I'm very much of the opinion that sugar should be considered a psychotropic substance in line with Caffeine and other addictive drugs. When I crash from sugar, it feels very much like any other addictive substance - I feel my mind craving another hit.

[edit] I love caffeine btw, so I'm not saying this is inherently bad -- just something we often forget.

In the interests of anecdata, I went ketogenic for about 18 months. One of my reasons for doing this that my sister described in glowing terms how eating this way had all sort of positive mental health efforts (more muted emotional responses, mental clarity, lack of anxiety).

I had no effect of that sort. I can only assume that this is one of those 'some people respond well to this, others not so much'.

"Muted emotional responses" .. this describes very well how I experience it actually.

This isn't surprising given everything we're starting to discover about the connection between gut bacteria and mental health[1], and that sugar has been shown to promote the growth of unhealthy gut bacteria[2].

[1]http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/gut-bacter...

[2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448089/

Interesting thought. Another option is that it's more of a link between substance dependence and anxiety. In the same way that alcohol, weed and other drugs create a feedback loop of 'feel bad' -> 'easy, instant solution' (to which absence of the solution can become the 'feel bad' itself, creating a loop), I suppose it could be the same for food/sugar.

Because it is related to more than diet. There is a ton of literature on all of the different factors that induce insulin resistance (assuming you are talking about type 2). Diet, lack of exercise, genes, pollution, stress, chronic inflammation, the list goes on.

And there isn't a type to look like. The idea that only obese people have type 2 is ignorant at best.

Consider yourself lucky you have type 2, you can control it very easily if you choose to do so. I would gladly swap my son't type 1 for type 2 any day of the week.

Stress definitely matters, but honestly you're probably just not eating right (not your fault, most diet advice is rubbish). Type-2 diabetes is mostly about insulin resistance, and you can become insulin resistant without necessarily being fat just by eating things that provoke a strong insulin response. All foods have an insulin response, but generally speaking, from high to low: sugar, refined carbohydrates, unrefined carbohydrates, protein, fat. If you limit things that have a high insulin response you'll probably improve!

Have you gotten tested for sleep apnea?

I'm interested, what is the relevance of sleep apnea in this context?

The exact nature of the relationship hasn't been figured out, but there is definitely some nexus of chronic stress, sleep disruption, and metabolic syndrome/prediabetes. Sleep apnea is fairly common but often goes undiagnosed. People aren't routinely screened for it, and even when they are screened, the questionnaires are heavily biased toward people who present with drowsiness as their primary symptom.

If you're type 2 diabetes you can cure yourself with an 8 week change in diet, clinically proven, http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm be careful Googling this as well, there is a TON of junk sites using the same keywords now.