Diabetes mellitus, more commonly known as diabetes, is the most common lifestyle disease in the world: The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) expects that by 2030, 35 million people will suffer from the disease in the United States, and more than ten million in Germany alone. Most suffer from type 2 diabetes, the so-called adult-onset diabetes, which, however, is increasingly diagnosed in adolescence. The main reasons for the development of this chronic metabolic disease are overeating and malnutrition with chronic hyperacidity, lack of exercise and genetic factors.
The speed of food intake itself is a risk factor for diabetes. The consequences are serious and can lead to vascular disease with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, nerve damage, poor circulation in the blood vessels of the legs, amputation, kidney failure and retinal damage. Approximately two-thirds of all dialysis patients are diabetic, and diabetes is the most common cause of blindness. The mortality rate of poorly controlled diabetics is five to ten times higher than that of people without diabetes. In Austria alone, one person dies every fifty minutes due to diabetes.