the nhs is facing a crisis with thousands of fat children developing diabetes  top stories direct to your inbox subscribe invalid email sign up to receive our rundown of the day'sdirect to your inbox when you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. our privacy notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. you can unsubscribe at any time.  the total is 10 times the number officially recorded as being referred to specialist paediatric units, meaning the problem is significantly worse than first feared. experts last night warned of a looming catastrophe with tens of thousands of young people expected to be diagnosed as diabetic in years to come. more than a third of children are leaving primary school overweight or obese. nhs consultant cardiologist and clean living campaigner dr aseem malhotra said: these truly shocking figures reflect the gravest health crisis of our time, underpinned by a collective failure to give children the best start for a healthy life. this is due to a combination of factors including government failing to protect the public from the deliberate targeting of children by the junk food industry. it's also a failure of public health england to acknowledge that type 2 is a condition of carbohydrate intolerance that can be reversed from eating a healthy diet.  i'm regularly giving dietary advice to my own patients suffering from weight problems and type 2 to cut out ultra-processed foods. essentially that's anything that comes out of a packet and has five or more ingredients should be eaten as an occasional treat, perhaps once a week, not daily. treating the total of 6,836 sufferers under 25 was revealed by diabetes uk and is based on the numbers treated in gp practices for the condition in england and wales in 2016/17. before this the most reliable data was from the royal college of paediatrics and child health earlier this year which said paediatric diabetes units were treating only 715 people under the age of 25 for type 2. vascular surgeon martin claridge, one of the uk's leading authorities on the condition, said: this is the tip of the iceberg. there are going to be many more young people out in the community who have not yet been diagnosed. as a society we appear to be sleep walking into this crisis.  type 2 diabetes is caused by obesity, lifestyle and poor diet  already more than one child in five is obese or overweight in their first year of primary school, illustrating the scale of the timebomb facing the nhs. there is already a sugar tax on some soft drinks but campaigners say it should be extended to food, and drinks not subject to the levy, like milkshakes, some of which contain as much as 16 teaspoons of sugar. supermarkets regularly advertise promotions aimed at children with family packs of branded chocolate and biscuits available for just £1. even sports organisations stand accused of making the crisis worse. mcdonald's has been a key commercial partner of the football association for 15 years. and earlier this year the fa renewed its long-standing partnership with confectionary giant mars, which makes mars bars, milky way, m&ms, skittles, snickers, and twix. the company is now the official supporter of the england men's, women's and disabled teams. campaigners want all labelling of added sugars to be marked in teaspoons rather than grams, all sugary drinks advertising on tv and internet demand services outlawed, and companies associated with sugary products to be banned from sponsoring sporting events.  birmingham has been shamed as britain's diabetes capital, where one in 10 now has the disease. type 1 diabetes, which is suffered by theresa may, is not caused by diet. but type 2 often is. a lifelong condition, it leads to serious complications such as blindness, amputations, heart disease and kidney failure it usually develops over the age of 40 in white europeans or after 25 in people who are african-caribbean, african, or south asian. the condition is much more aggressive in children and young people than in adults, with a higher overall risk of complications that tend to appear much earlier. the risk of developing type 2 is significantly increased by 33 percent being overweight or obese. bridget turner, diabetes uk's director of policy and campaigns, said: type 2 can be devastating for children and young people. to help shape a future where fewer children develop the condition, we need continued commitment across society to create an environment that reduces obesity. we need to encourage healthy living by providing viding treating each clear and easy to understand nutritional information about the products we are all buying, and protect children from adverts for foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar.  ways to prevent becoming a diabetic  overall, more than four million people in the uk have diabetes and a further 12 million living chronically unhealthy lifestyles are at increased risk of type 2. the disease has become a huge drain on the nhs, costing £14billion a year to treat – or £1million every hour. the number of related prescriptions issued the disease year has rocketed by 80 percent in a decade. the department of health and social care said: we are committed to halving child obesity by 2030 and will be launching consultations to restrict promotions in shops for sugary and fatty foods, as well as a 9pm watershed ban on advertising. the upcoming nhs longterm plan will have prevention at its core.  how sufferers are affected affecting around 90 percent of diabetes sufferers, type 2 is usually caused by lifestyle factors such as obesity, lack of exercise and poor diet. it occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin or the hormone does not work properly, and is more common in people over the age of 30. often diagnosed in childhood, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the cells in the pancreas that make insulin and it is not produced at all. as insulin regulates the amount of glucose allowed into the body, both types cause a build up of blood sugar that can cause serious health problems.  consumption of too many sugary drinks can cause type 2 diabetes  sugary drinks cause a 'greater risk' artificially sweetened drinks put people at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than other sugary foods, a study has warned. researchers found that products with added fructose introduce excess nutrient poor energy into the diet and can have a harmful effect on blood sugar levels. however that was not the case with food and drink where fructose occurs naturally such as in whole fruit and juice, vegetables and honey. previously it was unclear whether avoiding food where free sugars occur naturally could also be beneficial.  the current advice is just to reduce the amount of items where free sugars are added such as soft drinks, breakfast cereals, sweets and desserts. researchers compiled results from 155 studies that looked into how different foods containing fructose sugars affect blood glucose levels in people with and without diabetes. they found most foods containing fructose sugars do not have a harmful effect on blood glucose levels as long as they do not provide too many calories. fruit and juice may even have beneficial effects on blood glucose and insulin control, especially in people with diabetes. but foods that add excess nutrient poor energy to the diet, especially sweetened drinks, seem to have the most harmful effects on health. the researchers, based in the canadian city of toronto, said the higher fibre content of fruit could help to explain the improvements in blood glucose levels, as it slows down the release of sugars. lead author dr john sievenpiper said more studies were needed but added: these findings might help guide recommendations on important food sources of fructose in diabetes prevention and management. public health professionals should be aware harmful effects of fructose sugars on blood glucose seem to be mediated by energy and food source.  only decisive action now will be able to halt crisis comment by robin hewings with one in three children either overweight or obese before they leave primary school, it is now clearer than ever that bold, decisive action needs to be taken. in the latest chapter of its childhood obesity plan, the government laid out its commitment to halving childhood obesity by 2030. our latest analysis provides yet more evidence that the government, and industry, urgently need to turn these commitments into action. type 2 diabetes is a serious, life-long condition that can lead to devastating complications. what we're seeing in these new figures is that obesity is driving this alarming increase in the number of children and young people with the condition, which is potentially setting them up for a lifetime of poor health.  robin hewings [twitter.com/robinhewings]  the nhs must provide appropriate specialist services to support children with type 2 to manage the condition and reduce the risk of serious complications. but the diabetes crisis is one that must be fought on many fronts. we want to see continued funding within the nhs for preventing type 2 and a commitment to the improvement of care services which reflects the seriousness of this growing epidemic. and the fact is, we live in a society where making the healthy choice is not always the easy choice.
shocking rise in child diabetes: 7,000 youngsters have type 2 in ‘gravest health crisis'