Fruit flies that eat human diets suffer human consequences, according to new fly-fattening research. Overeating caused diabetic symptoms in flies, whether they ate too much sugar or went Atkins. Though these obese fruit flies die even more quickly than usual, their short-and-sweet lives might help researchers learn about diabetes in humans.
Drosophila are pretty distant relatives to us—as should be obvious from their wings and external skeletons—but our bodies make and manage insulin in similar ways. Insulin is the hormone that regulates blood sugar; we humans manufacture it in our pancreases. Obesity and bad diet can fry our systems, making us resistant to our own insulin (like we become tolerant of caffeine or alcohol or other drugs, feeling less effect with greater use). This immunity to insulin is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes.
Humans with type 2 diabetes have to constantly monitor their blood sugar and may eventually suffer ...
