Fast foods blamed for spread of diabetes epidemic

A few years ago in New York, a jokey colleague shouted across the newsroom: “Hey, Loughran, if Gaucher’s hits your desk, you will be doing everything yourself.”

He was referring to (a) a local epidemic of Gaucher’s disease and (b) the fact that most of my colleagues on the foreign news desk were Jewish. The genetic disorder in question is 100 times more common among Jews than among non-Jews.

Gaucher’s disease affects the internal organs and is the result of mutated genes carried by the parents. As far as I remember, none of my editors ever fell victim to it, but the susceptibility of certain communities to specific diseases remains a question for continuing scientific investigation.

Sickle-cell disease occurs most commonly among black Africans — apparently the prevalence of malaria has something to do with it.

Cardio-vascular failure is the major cause of death across the whole UK population but it is an especially high risk factor for Indian men, while black Caribbean men are more likely than most to suffer a stroke.

The latest disease to cause concern is diabetes, which a new study suggests is spreading rapidly in the developing nations. The survey, part-funded by the United Nations, found that the number of adults worldwide with diabetes had increased from 153 million in 1980 to 347 million today.

Cultural, ethnic, even religious reasons are usually explored in investigating so-called community diseases, but scientists promptly blamed the dramatic increase in diabetes on the spread of Western-style diets and takeaway foods to developing countries.

This type of food consumption caused rising levels of obesity, leading to one or more types of diabetes, they said.

Diabetics have inadequate blood sugar control, a condition that can lead to heart disease and strokes as well as damage to the kidney, nerves and eyes. Careful dieting and insulin injections are widely used to keep the condition at bay.

More common

One of the study’s main authors, Professor Majid Ezzati, told The Observer newspaper: “Diabetes is one of the biggest causes of mortality worldwide and our study has shown that it is becoming more common almost everywhere.”

The Pacific island nations and Saudi Arabia are among those countries reported to have high rates of diabetes.

Professor Ezzati said: “Diabetes is set to become the single largest burden on world health care systems.” He added that “many nations are going to find it very difficult to cope with the consequences.”

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Adding to my list last week of bad designs, Anjum from Kenya complains that the clothes hook on the back of most women’s toilet doors is invariably placed so high you have to reach up on tip-toe or put your things on the floor. And of course it is useless for children.

I may add that most men’s toilets do not even have a clothes hook, the excuse being that people steal them.

I would have thought the goodwill earned by providing a new one would far exceed the cost of a cheap plastic hook and a couple of screws.

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According to the movies I have watched, the first thing that loony megalomaniacs do when they move to seize control of the world is to cut off communications to all the power centres — police, security, military etc. I think somebody has mistaken me for a power centre.