It’s no secret–diabetics can often win complete control over their condition by simply losing weight and watching what they eat.

So long, meds… and goodbye, insulin. It’s as easy as that.

But now, an Associated Press report shows how some diabetics who won’t lose weight the right way–through diet and exercise–are now reaching out for an extreme alternative: weight-loss surgery.

And this dangerous shortcut isn’t reserved for the fattest of the fat anymore.

In fact, some diabetics who turn to stomach surgery barely put a strain on the scales. They’re among the functionally overweight, people who are really just a few good months of reasonable eating away from a normal, healthy size.

And that’s just frightening.

At least one new study on the impact of weight-loss surgery on diabetics is recruiting patients with BMIs as low as 27 –-right in the middle of the “overweight” category, and nowhere near the “obese” range, much less the high levels of obesity you typically see in candidates for the procedure.

Diabetics are being led into operating rooms by doctors and surgeons who say there’s more to controlling the disease than just good dieting. These doctors–who collect huge fees for each stomach they shrink–claim that the surgery itself may cause a change inside the body that leads to normal blood sugar control.

One theory is that the newly bypassed digestive tract can help control the hormones that regulate blood sugar. In other words, they want you to believe that the expensive, dangerous surgery can do something that healthy dieting can’t.

But tens of thousands of diabetics who’ve lost weight the right way beg to differ. They’ll tell you the truth– because they didn’t need surgery, just a firm commitment to healthy lifestyle changes.

Many of them are now completely free of any sign of diabetes, and no longer use meds. And if they can do it, so can you–because a good diet can do more than help you lose weight. It can teach you how to eat.

Many patients who opt for surgery, on the other hand, never learn that lesson and wind up eating smaller portions of the same bad foods, more frequently. Others turn to high- calorie items like milkshakes.

And then, the weight starts coming back.

Surgery only works if you commit to a radically different lifestyle afterwards. But as long as you’re planning to make changes anyway, do yourself a favor and skip the surgery in the first place.

Learn to eat right. The weight will come off more quickly than you think… and then, you can take control of your diabetes–and maybe even bid adieu to your meds.

Your body will thank you. Your pharmacist, on the other hand, might not.