There is an overwhelming scientific evidence linking obesity to the development of type 2 diabetes. With this in mind, fat loss is without a doubt the best way to manage and prevent type 2 diabetes.

A study published in Diabetes Care, suggests that losing 1 (yes, one) gram of fat (0.035 oz) can lead to reversal of type 2 diabetes. There’s a catch, though, it has to be fat coming from the pancreas.

The study focused on 18 obese participants with type 2 diabetes before and after undergoing a gastric bypass surgery. Magnetic resonance imaging (MIR) was used to scan the bodies of the study participants. Their findings revealed that, compared to obese patients without diabetes, the diabetes patients had an unusual amount of fat built up around the pancreas, the organ responsible of producing insulin.

After having the surgery, the patients burnt off the fat. This resulted in them restoring their insulin levels to normality after 8 weeks and allowed them to come off their medication.

Whaaaaat?!

These results suggest that fat in the pancreas is specific to type 2 diabetes. Somehow this fat is not allowing insulin to be produced/released normally.

Roy Taylor, the lead researcher for this study, said that 1 gram is the required amount of fat to make diabetes go away, but that gram has to be from the pancreas. He noted that the only way to do this is by a calorie restriction diet or via an operation.

The researchers compared the results to those of diabetes-free people who also had a gastric  bypass surgery. What they found was that they all lost around the same body weight after the surgery, but the fat came from different places. The non-diabetic patients did not have fat in their pancreas, so the pancreas stayed the same. In contrast, the type 2 patients lost on average 1.2% of fat from the organ, which brought them back to normality.

It was a small sample size, so the experiment will have to be repeated with a larger number of people. Still, it is an amazing discovery.