Actor Tom Hanks has spoken out about his diabetes diagnosis stating that he is solely responsible for acquiring the illness.
The Hollywood veteran said he was once an “idiot” with his eating habits that he attributed to the American diet.
“I’m part of the lazy American generation that has blindly kept dancing through the party and now finds ourselves with a malady,” he told Radio Times.
Hanks was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, according to The Independent. Type 1 diabetes is identified in people who were born with the ailment, but Type 2 – the most common type – occurs later in life and is partly due to lifestyle habits.
Roles in movies including “Castaway” and “Philadelphia,” where the actor had to lose and gain large amounts of weight may have been related to the diagnosis, he said at the time.
“You know those high blood sugar numbers you’ve been dealing with since you were 36? Well, you’ve graduated! You’ve got Type 2 diabetes, young man,” Hanks revealed on the “Late Show” with David Letterman, according to Today.
“I was heavy. You’ve seen me in movies, you know what I looked like. I was a total idiot,” says Hanks.
Hanks has admitted to trying in vain to be healthier, but ultimately failing.
“I thought I could avoid it by removing the buns from my cheeseburgers. Well, it takes a little bit more than that.”
On the bright side, Hanks’ doctor told the Oscar-winner that his diagnosis could be reversed if he reaches his target weight, according to The Independent.
“My doctor says if I can hit a target weight, I will not have Type 2 diabetes anymore,” he said.
But the 59-year-old confessed that he may not be able to reach his target weight and will have to live with the disease.
“Well, I’m going to have Type 2 diabetes then, because there is no way I can weigh [what I weighed] in high school,” he told David Letterman in 2013.
Sources: The Independent, Today