I have just read form the web that Asians today are more prone to Type II diabetes. Being thin and short isn’t enough o ward off diabetes. Asians who have this disease are young and thin in contrast to belief that diabetes is associated with weight and old age.
Diabetes has been a global problem, before this disease is more common in the West but now there is a shift in figure almost 50% of the diabetic are from Asia. Unlike in the US, Asia has younger diabetes victims. Reviewing over 200 studies on diabetes in Asia, researchers looked at a host of socio-political and cultural shifts that have changed the way Asian people live and eat. The twin processes of rapid economic development and urbanization are partly to blame, says Juliana Chan of Chinese Hong Kong University. Changes that took place over 200 years in Europe have been accelerated in Asia, leading to what she describes as a “mismatch” between people’s genetic make-up and their habits. Food is more abundant today across Asia than it was, say, 100 years ago, but bodies have yet to adapt. Says Chan: “We are five foot three, but we eat like we are six feet tall.”
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