Those who have levels of blood sugar that are higher than normal but fall short of full-blown diabetes will be considered to have "pre-diabetes," a new term for what used to be called impaired glucose tolerance, or impaired fasting glucose, experts say.

"The main concern is that you're going to see more people with a longer duration of diabetes," [Frank Vinicor] says. "It used to be one rarely saw type 2 diabetes except in people over 40, so maybe they had 30 years of high blood sugar and high blood pressure and the associated complications. Now, if someone is only 15 and gets it, you're likely to see 50 to 60 years of type 2 diabetes."