Starving that sweet tooth

I was chatting with my sister-in-law, Frances, the other day as we drove back from Bradenton on the gulf coast. We chatted on the way over, too, but those subjects aren't important. Neither is this one, actually, but I wanted to muse on it more.

Frances has diabetes. She struggles with it, as most who have it do, and we (Faye and I) try to help her keep her blood sugar under control. She loves sweets and they are hard to resist. Maybe harder simply because she needs to avoid them.

Diabetes, especially Type 2, is on the rise. Especially in children. The conventional wisdom is that this is due to all the added sugar in processed foods and, perhaps, other sweeteners. Frances likes to blame something called High Fructose Corn Syrup which seems to be in just about everything these days.

She may be right. I would like to blame artificial sweeteners. These have various names and are made from various natural sources. My hypothesis goes like this:

The human body is a marvelous and complex organism. It has ways to regulate blood sugar. It does this with insulin. Diabetes occurs when the body fails to produce sufficient insulin to regulate blood sugar. When we deny the sugar to the body (and the body does need sugar and carbohydrates... which it converts to sugar), does the insulin production slow or shut down? If it does then can this be a reason for the increase in diabetes?

I don't drink low calorie drinks. I avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible because I do not like the aftertaste. But it is getting harder and harder. I find them in everything from toothpaste to mouthwash to cough drops to breath mints.

What do you think?