One out of 12 people in the western world suffers from type 2 (adult onset) diabetes. Worldwide, 150 million people are diabetic and their numbers are expected to double in the next 20 years. The culprit? The growing obesity epidemic.

The reasons for the strong correlation between excess body fat and diabetes have been puzzling researchers. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of Umea, Sweden, have now unraveled a mechanism by which fat contributes to the onset of the disease. Their results were published in the April issue of Cell Metabolism.

Elevated fat in the bloodstream appears to accelerate the disease, and it has to do with a receptor known as GPR40, which is found on the outer surface of pancreatic beta cells.

This issue gets into more scientfic and technical detail than I'm comfortable with, so let me refer you to an excellent article which outline the relationship between obesity and diabetes.