DIABESITY
The word is a blend of diabetes and obesity, which sums up the problem. Doctors in the West and some Asian developing countries are deeply worried about the rapid increase in a form of diabetes called adult-onset or Type 2 diabetes. This used to be a problem of later life but it is now being seen more and more among obese younger people, sometimes even children. A person who is grossly overweight — another problem which is now endemic in some Western nations — has a very high risk of contracting diabetes, so high that the two conditions are considered intimately connected — a situation the new term seeks to express. The cure is the deeply unpopular one of eating less and taking more exercise to reduce weight; even if a person already has adult-onset diabetes caused by being overweight, getting slim can put it into remission. In the US, diabesity is a trademark of a non-profit organisation, Shape Up America, which raises awareness of the health effects of obesity and promotes a healthy lifestyle.
A particular concern is the rapid spread among Asian children of what was once known as adult-onset diabetes. The ailment, which rarely affected children in the past, is so closely linked to obesity that it has been nicknamed “diabesity.”
[International Herald Tribune, 17 Mar. 2003]
Hand in hand with the obesity rates is a rocketing rate of diabetes. In America, they are even coining a new word for it: diabesity.
[Guardian, 10 May 2003]
