Glance at social media and the slew of twentysomething women in lycra leggings gives the impression of an ultra-health conscious generation. Yet new, alarming figures published this week reveal a very different story. Type 2 diabetes - the condition driven by obesity - has soared by 70 per cent in British women aged 20-29 over the last decade, according to a shock study by experts from Imperial College London. The rise was much less dramatic among men of all age groups. In those over 60, diagnoses are in fact declining.Also worrying was the increase in waistlines among young women who were seen to be far heavier when first diagnosed, compared to men. 'There's been a dramatic change over the course of a few decades and it's accelerated recently,' says Roy Taylor, emeritus professor of medicine and metabolism at the University of Newcastle who has pioneered research into type 2 diabetes. The potentially deadly condition is triggered by lifestyle factors such as an unhealthy diet, which can hamper the production of insulin in the body, causing sugar to build up in the blood. Thirty per cent of UK adults are obese, 90 per cent of whom will go on to develop type 2 diabetes.Some commentators have put the meteoric rise down to the increased consumption of ultraprocessed food (UPF) among youngsters. But studies consistently show that men are bigger UPF lovers than women.So what's going on? Here, some of the UK's top diabetes specialists reveal the surprising factors fuelling the gender difference. Diagnoses of type 2 diabetes have surged 70 per cent in 20-something women, data showsOne suspicion is that societal changes in gender norms mean more women may be partaking in calorific acitivites; e.g drinking large amounts of alcohol.In the 90s, fewer women would engage in lone drinking, or big binge sessions, says Prof Taylor.'It wasn't that common to consume rounds of shots,' he adds. 'Think of the calorie intake that this entails.'The data would suggest this to be true. The number of women drinking heavily has been steadily rising over the last decade.While the number of UK men reporting binge drinking has remained largely similar since 2016, the number of women doing so has seen a marked increase, according to a World Health Organisation report published in 2024.In 2016, 13.8 per cent of women in the general population reported heavy episodic drinking – and this had risen to 21.7 per cent by 2019.