How do you pronounce "diabetes"?

I remember that commercial. It annoyed me the way that OLD BEAR pronounced it. Maybe it was to appeal to people in Michigan and Wisconsin.

It's Sugar Biadeetes

I first heard diabeetus. It was in 1967. when I met a girl who had Type One. Later, the American Diabeetees Industry changed the pronunciation to diabeetees. Type Two, of course.

Seriously, did anyone think that Brimley would be the last surviving member of the four old couples from "Cocoon?" I was surprised he made it to the sequel.

Diabetees.

It pretty much destroyed my mother. She had a benign tumor on her pancreas that apparently threw her into Type 1 in her late 60s. Although my grandmother had it. And her mother before her. They weren’t overweight, it was just genetic.

But my mother would eat things like grapes and watermelon and insist it was okay because it was “natural sugar” and compensate with insulin. It was frustrating for all of us.

So now I’m very careful with a very low carb diet. It’s not fun. I’m just waiting for it to get me.

Is the second syllable pronounced 'bee' or 'beh'?