Word nerds would tell me this introduction can’t do what I want it to do: one-up last week’s numbers. One-upsmanship, they’d argue, can only be done to another human being, not to parts of an abstract mathematical system.

Whatever.

Last week’s column declared that the worldwide increase of 10 million obese children in 23 years — an upswing of 23.8 percent — is frightening on two fronts: not only do obese children tend to be sicker than healthy-weight children, but they are also more likely to be obese as adults.

And obese adults develop type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and heart disease at a far higher rate than healthy-weight adults. As a result, I argued that adults, and parents in particular, should do everything and anything possible to help a child maintain a healthy weight.

This week’s worldwide statistic specifically deals with adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and the upswing one-ups — word nerds be damned! — last week’s 23.8 percent.

In 1980, about 108 million people worldwide had type 2 diabetes, the type you give yourself through years of eating poorly, exercising rarely, and adding the resultant unwanted bodyweight. By 2014, the number was estimated at 422 million, an escalation of 74.4 percent — in only 11 more years more than triple last week’s increase.

If worldwide statistics are too far removed to you, consider just the United States. According to the American Diabetes Association, 29.1 million Americans have diabetes, about 9 percent of the population. But nearly three times that, about 86 million people, have the precursor to type 2 diabetes, known as prediabetes.

Sadly, about 9 out of every 10 prediabetics have no idea are they are on that Rocky Road (cleverly capitalized in dubious honor of that calorie-laden ice cream) that leads to full-blown diabetes. And even sadder is the old notion most laymen — and even many medicos! — still hold about type 2 diabetes.

That its diagnosis is as bleak as a pit bull biting your backside. That once the viselike jaws of type 2 diabetes clamp down on you, they don’t let go. That once diagnosed, you’re doomed to a lifetime of medication.

Not so, according to a paper published by BMJ (previously known as the British Journal of Medicine). In it, professor Mike E. J. Lean and other researchers from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom argue that significant weight loss, a bit more than 30 pounds for those they studied, consistently undoes the disease.

This declaration falls in line with prior research released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found prediabetes could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by as much as 58 percent simply by losing 5 to 7 percent of their body weight through increasing their level of exercise.

While the BMJ paper acknowledges two studies that show less than 1 percent of type 2 diabetics actually achieve remission through weight loss, the authors argue that’s the case right now only because so few doctors offer weight loss as a rock-solid solution. As a result, few patients actually believe in weight loss enough to reach the total that triggers remission.

Now there’s good reason for even the fit readers to spread the word about reversing type 2 diabetes through diet and exercise: If the U.S. would have fewer type 2 diabetics, it would mitigate the cost of health care insurance.

Proof of that lies in a Medical News Today article that estimates the direct and indirect costs of diagnosed diabetes in 2012 in the U.S. totaled $245 billion, an average health care yearly bill for each type 2 diabetic of $13,700.

On a related note, a study from the Department of Nutrition at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that there are diets that work best for weight loss for prediabetics and those with type 2 diabetes.

An analysis of more than 1,200 adults, found that prediabetics following the New Nordic Diet — a diet high in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables — lost nearly 13.5 pounds in 26 weeks, but the subjects in the study on the diet and not diagnosed as prediabetics only lost 4.5 pounds.

Similarly, those already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were found to lose more weight on a diet low in carbohydrates and high in plant fats as opposed to a diet low in all fat and high in carbs. But that the second diet yielded better results for the subjects not afflicted with type 2 diabetics.

The Copenhagen study reinforces something written in this column for years: that the one-size-fits-all approach to dieting is at best a hit-or-miss proposition and that the day is approaching — albeit slowly— when your individual diet will be based on your individual response to carbs, fats, and proteins.