South Africans of Indian descent carry the heaviest diabetes burden of any group in this country.
We carry the heaviest sugar burden in the country. The reasons are in our bodies, our kitchens and our habits — and only two of those three are out of our hands.
ASK any family in Chatsworth, Phoenix, Reservoir Hills, or Tongaat how many of their relatives have “sugar”, and nobody counts on one hand. An aunt on tablets. A father on insulin. A grandmother who lost her sight, or a toe, or a kidney - and a family that speaks about it the way you speak about the weather.
We have made peace with something we should be furious about.
South Africans of Indian descent carry the heaviest diabetes burden of any group in this country. The national health and nutrition survey found it. Community studies in Durban have been finding it since the 1980s. And the problem is not simply that more of us develop diabetes. It is that we develop it younger, we develop it at a lower body weight, and the damage arrives sooner.
