False. Insulin does not regulate sugar levels. It facilitates in sending glucose to various parts of your body from the blood stream to a cellular level. It is used not just as a source of energy feeding your skeletal muscle tissue, your brain, etc - but also aids in recovery of said tissue during damage.
It does not regulate "levels". It helps your body absorb the glucose.
Also, sugar isn't the culprit - it is GLUCOSE. Glucose is what carbohydrates are turned into when your body digests them. Carbs as in bread, pasta, whole grains, wheat, sugars, etc.
They are all glucose.
Eating large amounts of whole grains produces the same effect as eating large amounts of sugar - the main difference is how quickly your body can turn a raw ingredient such as whole grains into glucose vs a refined material like table sugar.
Planting the blame solely on "sugar" foods like candy, snacks, pop, etc is asinine and misleading. No shit high amounts of glucose are dangerous - why not blame ALL foods high in carbohydrates and not just "sugar"?
Sugar regulation will do nothing to stop the ailments that come with BAD DIET.
Take me, for example. I'm an insulin diabetic. When I was diagnosed I was at the peak of my health. I ate amazingly, had a body fat % hovering at 9%, exercised all the time, weighed in at 220 for being 6'3", didn't drink, didn't smoke. I have an auto-immune disease attacking my pancreas and (recently) a few other organs (not willing to discuss here).
Glucose did not make that happen. Working out did not make that happen. The auto-immune disease did.
Is there a relation between eating large amounts of carbohydrate-heavy foods and diabetes? For type 2, sure. It's insulin resistance. You produce so much of it to help facilitate the carbs you intake that your body begins to become resistant to the hormone - meaning you'll wind up on Metformin and other diabetic meds.
Moderation. That's it. I am a diabetic due to an auto immune disease and I find blaming sugar for so much is flat-out wrong. Pop, candy, snacks are not the only means we get carbs.
Moderate the whole fucking thing - this bullshit about "omg that sugary goodness is bad for you" is just one TINY fucking aspect to a much larger picture.
If these doctors and scientists who come out with these studies REALLY cared - they'd finish out the mile they started instead of stopping after checking out the first 20 yards.
There's so much more to the glucose picture than just "sugar". Demonizing one part does nothing to help curb the problem when so many equally dangerous parts exist.
Also - do we REALLY need a study to tell us "eating too much of a bad thing is bad for you"? REALLY? No fucking shit! Thanks for the tip! Nobody knows this!
The better effort would be to help people understand how to properly moderate their food intake - but no - we get continuous research into shit everyone already knows.
Sugar isn't bad in moderation. An alcoholic drink here and there won't turn your liver toxic. An over-abundance, will. Same shit here.
Instead of demonizing something that can be A-OK in moderation - how about EDUCATING on how to properly moderate.
EDIT:
Also saying that foods will affect everyone the same is stupid, as well. As is proven time and again what works for A might not work for B.