A morbidly obese diabetic influencer is announcing you can’t give yourself diabetes.
But if someone can reverse type 2 diabetes, this means you CAN give yourself this metabolic disease.
Amanda Martinez Beck, who has almost 25,000 Instagram followers as of this article’s publication date, has posted numerous times the following: “Diabetes isn’t a punishment for being fat.”
She’s posted a number of times that she herself has diabetes, but in her messages never mentions if it’s type 1 or 2.
This article is about type 2, in which the pancreas produces insulin, but – as one type 2 diabetic once told me – the body doesn’t know what the hell to do with it.
I used to work with an autistic woman who had type 2 diabetes. She wasn’t fat, but she was very sedentary and consumed at least five cans of sugary soda every day.
She once told me she was working on getting rid of her diabetes and gave up soda and other junk foods.
One day she announced she no longer had the disease. Her host home provider said that her doctor had confirmed this.
I once met a man who had reversed his type 2 diabetes with healthier eating, weight loss and exercise.
There are many who have gone from type 2 diabetic status to normal glucose metabolism through lifestyle changes.
If people can “ungive” themselves type 2 diabetes, this means they can give themselves type 2 diabetes.
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (Hu et al, Sept. 2001) states: Our findings support the hypothesis that the majority of cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented by the adoption of a healthier lifestyle.
Amanda Martinez Beck, who habitually preaches that obesity isn’t a risk factor for chronic illness, is spreading medical misinformation.
She says that diabetes is “largely genetic,” though fails to point out which type.
In other posts as well as her main caption here, she has conveniently left out the type. According to the National Institutes of Health, type 1 is strongly genetic.
This obesity promoting influencer slyly conceals her medically incorrect rhetoric by omitting which type she’s referring to.
To say that diabetes is “largely genetic” is NOT the same as what researchers do indeed believe:
“High genetic risk and an unhealthy lifestyle were the most significant contributors to T2D development” (Diabetes, Zhao et al, May 2026).
“High genetic risk” doesn’t mean that most people have a high genetic risk. Amanda Martinez Beck is confusing this with the concept of T2D having some degree of genetic influence in all cases.
The woman I knew certainly had a genetic risk, since not everyone who eats the way she did will get T2D.
But the influencer strongly implies that in every human being, there exists a major genetic risk of developing the type 2 version.
Again, this is completely different than what medical science already knows: that for some people, the risk is higher than others, but the development of T2D is driven by lifestyle factors.
Recall that famous saying: Genetics loads the gun; environment pulls the trigger. Amanda believes that every single individual has the same big gun that just might misfire by accident.
Science says that the trigger of the gun must be pulled (by unhealthy lifestyle habits such as obesity and avoidance of exercise).
Another study in the New England Journal of Medicine (Tuomilehto et al, May 2001) states:
Although the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes has yet to be identified, there is strong evidence that such modifiable risk factors as obesity and physical inactivity are the main nongenetic determinants of the disease.
The paper’s conclusion is: Type 2 diabetes can be prevented by changes in the lifestyles of high-risk subjects.
Does that sound like T2D is “largely genetic”?
Amanda, you should read the following in Current Nutrition Reports (Dec. 2014) regarding the Nurses’ Health Study:
Excess adiposity is a major risk factor for diabetes, and thus, maintaining a healthy body weight and avoidance of weight gain during adulthood is the cornerstone of diabetes prevention.
The paper (Korat et al) also states: Taken together, these ongoing large cohort studies have provided convincing epidemiologic evidence that a healthy diet, together with regular physical activity, maintenance of a healthy weight, moderate alcohol consumption, and avoidance of sedentary behaviors and smoking would prevent the majority of type 2 diabetes cases.
- Nobody is saying genetic predisposition doesn’t play a role.
- But the medical literature clearly points out that lifestyle factors pull the trigger of everyone’s built-in gun.
- You don’t need a large gun if you’re 180 pounds overweight (as Amanda Martinez Beck appears) and haven’t exercised since childhood (she’s 42).
The Danger of Telling People Diabetes Is “Largely Genetic”
Those whose lifestyles put them at high risk for type 2 will read this influencer’s posts and, if they’re easily swayed by surface-level comments and avoid checking the facts, they will take her word as the gospel.
And we all know (or should know by now) that many followers of influencers do, indeed, take their word as the gospel.
Followers may then not bother taking measures to reduce their elevated A1C or reverse the precursor to type 2, which is insulin resistance.
They’ll be like, “Oh, it’s largely genetic; why bother cutting back on sugary foods and taking up exercise or losing weight?”
You can bet that Amanda Martinez Beck gave herself diabetes, which we can logically presume is type 2.
In her defense, some of the comments to her post point out that thin people get diabetes, and that no disease affects only fat people.
Well gee, by this line of logic, we can conclude that drunken driving doesn’t cause motor vehicle accidents because many crashes are caused by drowsy driving, texting while driving and tire blowouts.
My favorite is: “Sharks don’t attack people because crocodiles do.”
Putting T2D in Remission
“Our findings show that, at 12 months, almost half of participants achieved remission to a non-diabetic state and off antidiabetic drugs. Remission of type 2 diabetes is a practical target for primary care,” says a study in The Lancet (Dec. 2017).
The remission was achieved through an intense weight management course led by primary care.
There are many more studies such as this. The proof is out there that genetics do not have to condemn anyone to type 2 diabetes.
