BMI stands for body mass index. It is a convenient way to see whether someone is likely to be either over or under weight.

The way BMI is calculated for South Asians is different to the way in which it is calculated for people with a European background.

The reason for this is that South Asians have been found to be more at risk of the problems of being overweight such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Read more about the

risk factors of diabetes

When you have your BMI number refer to the table below and determine whether you are underweight, in the normal range or overweight.

Limitations of BMI measurements

For certain people, the BMI measurement may not be the best measure as the calculation assumes that people will have more or less a similar amount of muscle.

Therefore those who have a high level of muscle mass may incorrectly fall into the overweight bracket.

Asians have a particularly high susceptibility to type 2 diabetes and a healthy diet is one of the main ways in which diabetes can be controlled.

Type 2 diabetes

is generally associated with carrying too much body weight, over 85% of people with type 2 are overweight.

Guidelines for a healthy diet

• Cut down on simple, refined carbohydrates
• Cut down on eating high calorie and fried foods
• Choose unsaturated fats over saturated fats
• Choose less or smaller portions of fatty or carbohydrate heavy foods
• Include plenty of fresh vegetables and also fruit
• Reduce the amount of processed foods in your diet
• Watch the salt content

Cutting down on simple, refined carbohydrates

Refined carbohydrates include carbohydrates such as bread, rice and dough based foods with little fibre.

Typically, these will be white bread, white rice and foods made out of white flour.

If you wish to have bread and rice, choose varieties with a much higher amount of fibre as these will be absorbed by the body more slowly and therefore have less impact on blood sugar levels.

Look for ‘

whole grain

’ varieties as these tend to have higher quantities of fibre.

Foods which get turned into blood sugar more slowly are said to have a

lower glycaemic index

(lower GI).

Sweet foods are always going to problematic for people with diabetes. You may find your

blood sugar levels

can tolerate the occasional sweet treat but it’s best not to let sweet foods become a regular part of your diet.

Cutting down on high calorie foods

Some of the highest calorie foods are those which combine relatively high amounts of carbohydrate and saturated fat.

Fried foods such as the below tend to be highly calorific:

• Fried rice
• Samosas
• Onion bhajis
• Masala curries

Dishes using ghee, makhan or cream will also add calories. Naan bread is quite bulky so can also push up the calories.

You may ask yourself what you can eat? Look for lighter foods such as popadoms instead of naan. Curries such as bhuna or tandoori may be slightly better options for curry.

Choose unsaturated fats over saturated fats

Unsaturated fats are found in foods such as nuts, avocados, oily fish and olive oil. Saturated fats are found in butter, cream, yoghurt and meats.

Find ways to choose more of the foods that contain unsaturated fats and less of those containing saturated fat.

Unsaturated fats help to balance your cholesterol levels which is an important part of staying healthy and avoiding heart trouble.

Using olive oil in cooking rather than butter or ghee, for example, can help to reduce the calories as well as being better for your cholesterol.

Having smaller portions

Particularly with foods high in carbohydrate or sugar, having large portions of these can be detrimental to your blood glucose levels. Having smaller portions will help to reduce the number of calories and will give your body more chance to cope with the

carbohydrate content

If you’re having food with more fibre (lower GI foods) then this can help your blood sugar levels to cope too.

Smaller portions are also recommended for any of the more fatty or fried food.

Getting plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit

A truly balanced and healthy diet should contain plenty of fresh vegetables.

Not all vegetables are as good for diabetes as each other, and the same goes for fruit. Root vegetables such as potatoes are notorious for pushing blood sugar levels too high for people with diabetes, so if you have potatoes and similar root vegetables, it’s best to keep portions relatively small.

However, many other vegetables are excellent for maintaining good blood glucose levels such as cauliflower, spinach, curry leaves, cabbage, aubergine and bell peppers.

Ditching the processed foods

Processed foods are increasingly being looked at as a source of blame for the rise in chronic health conditions such as diabetes. One area of concern is over the quality of fats used in processed products. The use of hydrogenated fats, known as trans fats, is starting to be phased out or banned in a number of countries.

Processed foods have also come under criticism for being too easy to digest, meaning they hit our blood sugar more severely, and the amounts of additives they tend to contain.

Try to limit the amount of ready made meals in your diet and check the ingredients list of tins and packaging to avoid the products with the most additives.

• Read more on
  
  processed foods
  

Watch the salt

Salt levels are another factor that have had a particular focus lately with salt being believed to be a factor in high blood pressure.

The daily recommendation is to have no more than 6g of salt. One way to reduce the amount of salt you’re eating is to cut down on the amount of salt you may add to cooking, or by not adding any salt at the table.

Again, processed foods tend to be some of the worst offenders for high salt content, so cutting down on processed foods is recommended for this reason too.

Diabetes, particularly cases of type 2 diabetes, is a growing health problem for people of South Asian descent.

The likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes is reported to be as much as 6 times higher in South Asians than in Europeans, with a number of factors –

mostly linked with lifestyle
– believed to be behind this increased risk.

In fact, South Asian people make up just 4% of the total UK population,  but account for an estimated 8% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.

What is defined as South Asian?

People of South Asian origin refers to individuals whose ethnicity is from one or more of the following countries:

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka

However, when referring to the South Asian community in the UK, this is generally limited to people of India, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent, who combined make up the largest ethnic minority in the country.

What are the statistics?

People from South Asian communities are known to be

up to 6 times more likely to have type 2 diabetes

than the general population. In addition, South Asians tend to have poorer diabetes management, putting them at higher risk of serious health complications.

South Asians without diabetes are also 3 times more likely to

develop cardiovascular disease, but combined with type 2 diabetes, this risk rises even further, particularly for adults with type 2 diabetes aged 20 to 60.

Furthermore, the survival rates in these young patients are also significantly lower compared to the caucasian population.

Risk indicators

In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) states that adults of South Asian origin are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes if they have:

• 
  A body mass index
  
  (BMI) of 23 or more, indicating they are overweight, and/or
• 
  A waist size
  
  of 35 inches or more for males, and 31.5 inches or more for females.

Why are South Asians at higher risk?

It is not entirely known why this is the case, but many experts believe diet, lifestyle and different ways of storing fat in the body all play a major part in upping the risk for this ethnic group.

Diet and obesity

In terms of diet, traditional foods high in sugar and fat combined with western “fast foods” are thought to be a major factor behind the high rates of obesity amongst South Asian communities in western countries, and could therefore also play a role in the development of diabetes.

Obesity, particularly central or abdominal obesity, is strongly associated with type 2 diabetes and people of South Asian origin are known to be more likely to have excess fat stored around the abdomen.

Genetics

Genes are thought to play a big part in South Asians’ diabetes risk.

In one large-scale international study, published in the August 2011 edition of journal Nature Genetics,

six separate genes were identified that make this group of people susceptible to type 2 diabetes

Muscles and fat metabolism

In 2010, a study published in the journal PLOS One suggested the way in which people of South Asian origin burn fat through their muscles could make them more prone to type 2 diabetes.

The team from Glasgow University found that

South Asians have skeletal muscles which do not burn fat as well as Europeans

This impaired fat metabolism may increase the likelihood of insulin resistance, which is often a precursor to full-blown type 2 diabetes.

What is type 2 diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes
is a long term health condition that is characterised by high levels of glucose in the blood. Common symptoms of diabetes include continual tiredness, increased need to go to the toilet to urinate, thirst, blurred vision and dry eyes.

Type 2 diabetes is often, but not always, associated with being overweight, and can take a number of years to develop and can damage the body, particularly if it is not diagnosed early enough.

Type 2 diabetes is a long term health condition that is characterised by high levels of glucose in the blood.

Common symptoms of diabetes
include continual tiredness, increased need to go to the toilet to urinate, thirst, blurred vision and dry eyes.

Type 2 diabetes can take a number of years to develop and can damage the body, particularly if it is not diagnosed early enough.