Rural to urban migration can cause diabetes and obesity

A recent diabetes study indicates that migration has a major role in the development of diabetes . The research, published in PLoS Medicine found that migration from rural to urban areas has been a strong factor behind growing diabetes and obesity rates.
Urbanisation is an increasingly global trend, with more job opportunities and a perceived higher quality of life in urban areas. This has resulted in the expansion of existing cities to cope with the migrant population, all of these changes influencing lifestyle and diet habits.
Lead researcher Shah Ebrahim reportedly commented: “The
likelihood is that they just eat more of everything because they have more money to spend on food.” The researchers studied 6510 people working in different factories. Ebrahim reportedly concluded: “The main reasons for weight gain is eating more calories than you need for the energy you burn up in physical activity. We have evidence that migrants tend to eat more fat than rural people, but other nutrients are quite similar.”