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Type-2 diabetes
Part 3:
Western diet is the cause of type-2 diabetes
In the same way that type-1 diabetes is not found in the wild animal kingdom or
in primitive man, neither is type-2.
That this form of the disease is a result of environmental and lifestyle
factors is demonstrated when people migrate and adopt the eating habits of
their new country: Populations who migrate to westernised countries with more
sedentary lifestyles have greater risks of type-2 diabetes than their
counterparts who remain in their native countries.[1]
But it is not just the change in exercise patterns that causes the greater
susceptibility to diabetes; populations undergoing westernisation in the
absence of migration: Native Americans[2] and Western Samoans,[3] who remain in
their own countries have also experienced increases in both obesity and type-2
diabetes.
References
1. Manson JE, Spelsberg A. Primary prevention of non —insulin-dependent
diabetes mellitus.
Am J Prev Med
1994; 10: 172-184.
2. Gohdes D, et al. Diabetes in American Indians: an overview.
Diabetes Care
1993; 16: 239-243.
3. Hodge AM, et al. Dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity in Western
Samoa over the 13 year period 1978-1991.
Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord
1994; 18: 419-428.
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