Do you have "a touch of sugar?" Or have you heard relatives talking about a family member who has "the sugar" or "sugar diabetes"? These expressions are all once-common terms, especially in the South, for type 2 diabetes.

"It is definitely a Southern thing," says nutritionist Lara Hassan, RD, LD, CDE, in Dallas. The expression probably comes from the Latin mellitus, which means "sweet as honey," and which Thomas Willis, an English physician and anatomist, added to the Greek word "diabetes" (meaning to siphon or pass through) in the 1670s. He used it to describe the sugar that spills into diabetes patients' urine, making their urine slightly sweet.

Problem is, having diabetes isn't so sweet. "If patients are told that they only have a ‘touch of sugar' or ‘the sugar,' it is sending them the wrong message," Hassan says. "It's implying that their diabetes is not serious enough to hurt them. If a patient is in denial about their disease, it's going to feed that denial and can sabotage their taking care of themselves and reducing their risks of complications from diabetes."

Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, MSPH, PhD, RD, president of Health Care and Education for the American Diabetes Association and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agrees. Calling diabetes "the sugar," as some still do in the South, "implies that diabetes is not something you need to be terribly worried about. Yet diabetes is very serious."

Uncontrolled diabetes can have very serious health implications. If you have diabetes, you are at greater risk for a stroke or heart attack. When not properly cared for, diabetes can cause nerve and kidney damage and can lead to blindness and other vision problems. It also can cause gum disease. However, managing your blood sugar, eating properly, and staying active can help keep this chronic condition in check.

A Tribute to Her Parents

Not everyone sees the expression "sugar diabetes" as necessarily ignoring the condition. Pat LeGrand says her parents, who grew up in the South, always referred to diabetes as "a touch of sugar." That's why in 2006, when she opened a restaurant in Cleveland for those with diabetes who wanted their Southern favorites — such as mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and sweet potato pie — but needed to eat healthier versions, she called it "A Touch of Sugar." It really was, LeGrand says, a tribute to her parents and her friends and relatives from the South who might refer to diabetes as "the sugar," but who do take it very seriously. "Because I opened the restaurant for personal reasons, its name was personal," she says. "It's really what my business is about — I really wanted an upbeat name, something that sounded nice."

Although the restaurant did well and garnered much media attention, LeGrand has since closed it and now does demonstrations on healthy cooking and lifestyle habits for people with diabetes. She also has written two cookbooks for people with diabetes, including many of her favorite recipes from the restaurant that featured the comfort foods her parents and relatives love so much.

Anita Mays, 56, of Cleveland, who has diabetes and who ate at the restaurant when it was open, bought both of LeGrand's cookbooks and has had LeGrand speak on diabetes and healthy eating at the company where she works. Like LeGrand, Mays doesn't believe that the term "the sugar" makes people take diabetes any less seriously. Mays says she wasn't even familiar with the expression until someone told her about the restaurant, but she recognizes how important it is for people be educated about diabetes and healthy eating.

It doesn't matter as much what you call diabetes as it does that you understand the seriousness of it. "If you recognize your risk for diabetes, you can take action — eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, and manage your weight with exercise," Mayer-Davis says, "and you will lower your risk for the serious complications diabetes can cause."