Abstract This paper reviews the history of diabetes Type Two, from the beginning of settled farming, and explains why there has from the 1950s until recently been so little emphasis on the prevention and reversal of the disease. Pilots and others in the early stages of diabetes have reversed their condition permanently by limiting carbohydrate intake. With little or no glucose in the blood, there is no diabetic challenge. Carbohydrate intake has recently been linked by nutritional academics with diabetes risk. Carbohydrate restriction is the underlying principle of several diets, and resembles the diet available historically, prior to settled agriculture.