Back when humans were hunters during the Ice Age, their bodies might have adapted to use less insulin so their brains and babies could keep getting enough sugar — and that same trait might still be...

Some groups, like Europeans, might be less likely to get type 2 diabetes because their ancestors started eating farm-based, high-carb diets thousands of years ago—giving their bodies more time to adapt—while other groups, like the Pima or Nauruans, started later and may not have had as much time to adjust.

Eating very few carbs and lots of protein might make your body less sensitive to insulin — not because it's broken, but because it's adapting to save glucose when carbs are scarce, like in ancient times.

When early humans ate meat sporadically and had little access to carbohydrates, the liver became less responsive to insulin to ensure the brain got enough glucose. Today, with constant carbohydrate intake, this same liver response may lead to metabolic problems.

Some groups, like the Pima Indians and Nauruans, might have genes that store energy more efficiently because of past famines and being cut off from others — which helped them survive back then, but now makes them more likely to get type 2 diabetes when eating modern diets full of carbs.