India In Throes Of Diabetes Crisis

Filed in archive Lifestyle on August 30, 2006

It's a scenario seen everywhere: as economic conditions improve, so do choices, including food choices, which leads to an increase of diet-caused maladies, including obesity and diabetes. India is the latest country to find itself in this crisis.

Rising incomes and huge servings of bad food -- from deep-fried samosas to pizza and burgers -- have sparked a surge in diabetes cases in India that threatens the health care system, experts say.

The creaky medical system in this country of 1.1bn people has traditionally focused on contagious diseases like malaria, polio and measles made chronic by a lack of food and proper sanitation for millions.

But as India's economy grows, more and more people -- half the population is under 25 -- are swapping lives of physical labour and homemade meals of rice and lentils for sedentary office jobs and big helpings of greasy take-away.

As a result, the number of diabetes cases, now at some 35mn, is expected to more than double in the next 25 years, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It's when we see statistics like these that we cannot deny that Type 2 diabetes is preventable, at least in a large number of cases. Do we need to wait for the world to become healthier, or will that be too late?

(Photo Source: Tropical Winds)