Ratio of diabetes to prevalence of obesity

Angela

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Recently, a study came out saying that after the growing prominence of agriculture, a gene increased in frequency which controls the amount of sugar in the blood. Makes sense, right?

Yet, this study questions how that could be the case if such old farming cultures such as India and China still have such a problem with diabetes.

See:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ratio-of-diabetes-to-obesity-prevalence

Yet, the Middle East is an old farming area, as are parts of southern Europe. So, what gives?
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What percentage of farmers have diabetes?

Lack of proper nutrition or bad dietary habits,
Lack of training even if non sedentary or engaged in labor work,
Laziness.
 
It looks like diabetes affects less obese people in cold countries like Canada and northern Europe. It's in hot countries that diabetes is becoming the most common, including the Middle East, India and Mexico. Indian people are not much into sports. So lack of physical exercise may be as much of a factor as obesity.

Mexico was ranked the least fit country for children in the world.

Maltese are the least physically active people according to this page and have the highest rate of diabetes in the EU.
 
It looks like diabetes affects less obese people in cold countries like Canada and northern Europe. It's in hot countries that diabetes is becoming the most common, including the Middle East, India and Mexico. Indian people are not much into sports. So lack of physical exercise may be as much of a factor as obesity.

Mexico was ranked the least fit country for children in the world.

Maltese are the least physically active people according to this page and have the highest rate of diabetes in the EU.
https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/SH.STA.DIAB.ZS/rankings

According to this ranking, India is #48 and Montenegro is #50 together with Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

I assure you that Montenegro has got to be the fittest country in the world as their fit to unfit ratio is unbelievable (and being a small country helps too), whereas Albanians are still discovering the wonders of gym and seldom play football with friends.

The fact that all these neighbouring countries have the same rate despite me knowing for a fact that Montenegrins and even Serbs are very active compared to Albania means that there's a genetic factor in it, and they're not that far from India at #48.
 
https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/SH.STA.DIAB.ZS/rankings

According to this ranking, India is #48 and Montenegro is #50 together with Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

I assure you that Montenegro has got to be the fittest country in the world as their fit to unfit ratio is unbelievable (and being a small country helps too), whereas Albanians are still discovering the wonders of gym and seldom play football with friends.

The fact that all these neighbouring countries have the same rate despite me knowing for a fact that Montenegrins and even Serbs are very active compared to Albania means that there's a genetic factor in it, and they're not that far from India at #48.

I think you're right. Diabetes is an auto-immune disorder, after all, and one of the theories is that auto-immune disorders are more prevalent in "hotter" countries because the immune system is reacting to so many pathogens.

It makes a sort of sense to me.
 
Interesting that Indians have such high rates of both obesity and diabetes when they are, with a few exceptions, mostly vegetarian. Even if they do consume meat it's on the order of once a month or so. Yet here, vegetarianism is hailed as being good for weight control. In addition to genetic factors, I wonder if they use a lot of butter and oil.

See:
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/thi...rwise-this-menu-smriti-will-change-your-views
 
Interesting that Indians have such high rates of both obesity and diabetes when they are, with a few exceptions, mostly vegetarian. Even if they do consume meat it's on the order of once a month or so. Yet here, vegetarianism is hailed as being good for weight control. In addition to genetic factors, I wonder if they use a lot of butter and oil.

See:
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/thi...rwise-this-menu-smriti-will-change-your-views
Actually, you'll lose the most weight if you go into a high protein and moderate fat diet, and if you have problems with your gut you'd better go into a carnivore diet for at least 8 weeks and then introduce vegetables slowly.
 
Actually, you'll lose the most weight if you go into a high protein and moderate fat diet, and if you have problems with your gut you'd better go into a carnivore diet for at least 8 weeks and then introduce vegetables slowly.

Nothing would make me become a vegetarian. :) I love meat of all types, but if I had to pick a last meal, and given my mother isn't here to make me her Genovese ravioli, it would be a huge aged Porterhouse from Peter Luger, one of our famous steakhouse, medium rare. Of course I'd spoil it because I'd have to have the hash browns, creamed spinach and their wonderful bread.

Seriously, thanks to genetics, so long as I watch the portion size, I'm ok with eating mostly everything I like. Thankfully, I don't like sweets, and I do like proteins. On a normal basis I also don't eat pasta, rice or potatoes if I'm going to be eating bread. I also don't drink alcohol or "soft drinks", so that helps too.

peter-luger-steak.jpg



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For those who haven't had enough protein and fat you can order a whole plate of crispy bacon. :)

It's where I ask to go for every birthday and anniversary.

I honestly don't think that any diet where you have to go to so much trouble to make sure you get all the right nutrients, ie. vegetarianism, is natural or healthy for us.
 
Can't wait for my wings and macaroni and cheese to be done (it will eventually be macaroni cheese and ketchup :) )
 
Can't wait for my wings and macaroni and cheese to be done (it will eventually be macaroni cheese and ketchup :) )

I hope that he who said that we are what we eat was wrong.

I think Helenawih wants to talk to you :grin:
 
My Indian friend had a quadruple bypass at 64 yo. Strict vegetarian mind you. East Indians in the USA are known for high incidence of diabetes and heart problems. There has to be a genetic component but their diet changes when they come here. Portions are bigger and sugar gets added to everything. Which reminds me, gelato in Italy is not as sweet as our local ice cream. Fruit preserves/jellies also are not as sweet as Smuckers.
 
My Indian friend had a quadruple bypass at 64 yo. Strict vegetarian mind you. East Indians in the USA are known for high incidence of diabetes and heart problems. There has to be a genetic component but their diet changes when they come here. Portions are bigger and sugar gets added to everything. Which reminds me, gelato in Italy is not as sweet as our local ice cream. Fruit preserves/jellies also are not as sweet as Smuckers.

I completely agree. Very few Italian sweets are as sweet as those people eat in the U.S. and even than in Britain. Then, Italians don't, or at least didn't eat as many sweets period. The only sweet I can remember eating every day growing up was my mother's anicini, which we dunked in caffe/latte, and in addition to being dry precisely for such dunking, they were barely sweet at all. I still bake my own biscotti, and I don't even like to bake, but the American made ones are much too sweet for me.

I also don't find German and Austrian desserts as sweet as American desserts either. A lot of what I know about baking comes from my friend of Bavarian ancestry. The ratio of fat to sugar, the two elements which make things taste good, along with salt, :), is much higher in German recipes than in American ones. She gave me a lot of her translated recipes, and if I run across some German dessert that sounds good and I really want to try it for a party, I get the German recipe and have her translate it. :) I only need to go to the German store for the vanilla sugar and a few other things.

I don't know where this craving for really sweet desserts and drinks comes from. I can't stand them.

Oh, I think that's why Americans have gotten even fatter after the production and sale of all these "low-fat" food items. To maintain taste, they just upped the sugar.

Diet, is, as you say, important, as well as genetics. Growing up I never saw a fat child in Italy, but I saw chubby Italian American kids here, and chubby East Asian kids too. One of my young girl cousins spent a month with a member of my family who had teen-age kids, and naturally was always going out with them and their American friends. I don't know how many kilos she put on, but it was enough that her father told me he's not letting her go to school here. :)

It's the reverse for me. Six weeks in Italy and I can lose up to ten pounds, yet it seems like I'm always eating.
 
Type 2 diabetes has now become epidemic in America’s youth. These children more prone to other diseases and will be on medication for the rest of their lives.
It’s really sad to see so many over weight unhealthy kids, because of too much unhealthy food and not enough exercise.
I suppose the parents are partly to blame, but many don’t know any better.
 
Type 2 diabetes has now become epidemic in America’s youth. These children more prone to other diseases and will be on medication for the rest of their lives.
It’s really sad to see so many over weight unhealthy kids, because of too much unhealthy food and not enough exercise.
I suppose the parents are partly to blame, but many don’t know any better.

I have noticed that also but I have noticed that Greek kids and young adults are starting to put on the pounds. Unhealthy snacks to blame. Here is a summary of an article appearing in Nature that blames High Fructose Corn Syrup for obesity: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02195-1
 
^ it’s okay I think, to have a little bit of soda and junk food, so long as you burn more calories then you take in.
The fashion today has changed.
Back in the 1980’s and 90’s we had the super models, ultra thin women who set the standard. Nowadays it is fashionable to have a big but and the old size 10 is a six.
Fat shaming will get you cancelled. . .
It’s well nourished, not obese lol
 
The fashion industry and visual media in general pushing the size 0 or size 2 look in women for the last decades is ridiculous, I agree, However, you can be well nourished, healthy, and have curves in the right places as a size 6 or 8. Given some women's body type, maybe a 10 or 12 might be ok as well.

There's nothing attractive about the body of a woman who wears a size 16 or 18, which is what a lot of American women wear. Neither is there anything attractive about men with breasts and a huge gut hanging over their belts. Think Harvey Weinstein.

Nor is it healthy. Lean people live longer; it's just a fact.

As for exercising, yes, it's important, but at the end of the day, if you eat at fast food places a lot of the time, consume lots of sugary drinks and candy and snacks full of unhealthy oils, you'll be obese and you'll get health consequences. We have an epidemic of obesity in children and teens for goodness sakes, and the resulting Type 2 Diabetes. It's a health crisis.

As far as children are concerned, it's the parents who are at fault. Children need to get away from the video games and their phones, go back to riding bikes and playing ball and they should be limited to three good meals a day. I never knew what snacking was as a child, and I was better off for it. Other than a piece of fruit, no one needs to "snack" on chips and candy and on and on. As for soda, it's also unhealthy. If you are eating delicious, high quality food at your meals you won't miss them.

Oh, and the other culprit is high alcohol consumption. How anyone could think getting blind drunk is fun is beyond me, and for parents to host parties where they allowed kegs of beer to be served to their adolescents. as happened a LOT in my neighborhood, is disgraceful, and a total abdication of responsibility as a parent imo, even if you make them stay at your house until sober.
 
I agree with you Angela, it is the parents who ultimately bear the responsibility of what their children are eating and how much.
It’s not easy sometimes, I know . . . my son has always been a big eater and was chubby when he was a child.
If I allowed him to eat unlimited amounts of junk food he would. I had to stop buying snacks and would give him a hard time about portion control, limited his TV and video games.
I had to listen to him whine and complain about how I was a “mean” mom, but I never did try to be my children’s friend. As he grew older he slimmed down and got into bodybuilding. Now he is 6’2” and 185lbs, and he looks and feels healthy.

Times were different when was a kid, I was very skinny. My parents didn’t have a lot of money to spend on junk food and we never had fast food. We ate what was put in front of us, or not at all. Also, we played outside all of the time.
In my late teens and early twenties, before having kids, I was always dieting and was somewhat obsessed about maintaining a slim figure. I’ve always loved clothes and when you are skinny they look and feel better when you put them on.

As I get older it harder to maintain my weight, but I refuse to give in to the middle age spread.

Yeah alcohol is a big culprit for me. There are lots of empty calories in wine and it erases what little willpower I have and then the next thing i know I give into instant gratification and break open a bag of potato chips.
 

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