The biggest takeaway from this video is that body fat percentage, not BMI, is the real concern.

Thanks to all the researchers and social workers for their hard work to make people more healthy

As a woman of South Asian descent, Ive learned so much from this. My grandmother is diabetic; my mother is also diabetic, my aunt has high blood sugar; my other aunt is also insulin resistant. So naturally, i inherited the awful genes which triggered my insulin resistance. I was Pre diabetic and pre obese in late 2018. Thats when i hit rock bottom in my life. I didnt make a significant change to my eating habbits until middle of 2019. Since then, I have lose 30 lbs with intermittent fasting. ( fast 20-22 hours and eat for 2-4 hours). This helped to reverse my insulin resistance as constant feeding was not spiking my insulin. I am back to normal weight and blood glucose levels.

Just a correction: Epigenetics is not saying the environment can "change your DNA" (19:21), but rather that it affects gene expression.

Wow, this is really interesting. I was a pretty lightweight baby too (slight over 2.5 kg) and my mother was probably malnourished (she had nothing to eat and didn't gain any weight throughout her pregnancy, stayed at around 40 kg). My parents tried to make up ensure I had good nutrition after I was born, but after puberty I was diagnosed with PCOS, and my fasting glucose tests placed me in the pre-diabetic range. My doctor has also told me, anecdotally, that she has noticed most of her patients with PCOS are from China, like me. I wouldn't be surprised if it's related to the prenatal nutrient deficiencies that they talked about in this video.

This is so true. I live in India and I recently found out that me and most people in my family had a B12 deficiency. Gotta take them supplements.

Great research by the doctors! Really the kind of work that is inspiring

Dr. Chittaranjan Yajnik and his team are doing exceptional work in the field of Diabetes. I always look forward to reading his research.

Here in the US, we call it “skinny fat”

Here in Amazon we have the same problem. I guess it would be interesting to visit this Indian center of Diabetes and learn something, after I finish med School

The comments section's like: "Oh, westernization, it's the one giving them diabetes, it's the carbs, blah blah blah!!!" Did ANYONE pay attention to the documentary at all?!

Really appreciate these health videos Slate - keep em comin!

The subtleties and complexity of biology is staggering. Excellent observation and research by Dr. Chittaranjan Yajnik and Dr. John Yudkin.

It really annoys me when they call it a western diet. It is not traditional Spanish, Italian or Danish food for example, it's a new invented food group. It is not a traditional western diet.

Wow. What a well-done video. Lots of work. Thanks to this wonderful doctor.

Impressive and admirable how such a rustic and unsophisticated hospital and research group in india found so many complex and useful information... Dayumm

Really well done. Thanks!

Awesome documentary!

This is so good and informative .. thank you so much

Industrial seed oils, high PUFA diet, etc also play a role. There are cultures with low incidence of diabetes who range from very low carb, to very high carb intake. The unifying factor appears to be the introduction of high PUFA intake, which in turn leads to greater insulin resistance, metabolic derangement, & carb intolerance.

As a student of behavioral genetics/genetic engineering, I enjoyed this documentary very much. Excellent job.

This deserves more shares.

Wow! This documentary may have answered my queries about my neighbor who is skinny yet has T2D. Thank you for sharing this video! Lots'a love, cheers, & Mabuhay, from tropical Philippines!

I wonder if the low B12 levels have anything to do with the high rates of vegetarianism in India....

Very informative video.

Us people who spend too much time at gyms or with fitness in general know that having the correct body fat percentage is quite possibly one of the most important benchmarks a human can achieve. BMI is there too, but you do all those weight trainings just to avoid being 'thin fat'.

The problem is not fat it's sugar

Its crazy beacuse my husbands dad who is frim Mexico and lived in a very small very poor village and moved to the US he recently got diagnosed with diabetes despite being genreally active and thin. This explains so much. Very fascinating and very important work! Amazing documentary.

Thank you for your research

*You Did Not Choose To Be Classified As Diabetic, But You Can Choose To Fight Back Against Diabetes* 💪

Awesome vids guys....😇😇😇

Really interesting thank you

Absolutely outstanding. Thank you.

Food and nutrition are two totally different concept, big size population live on fast food,refined carbs and processed meat only. Really valuable findings and great to share this video. Thanks

Look at the sugar and refined carb intake... it's the kiss of death.

100 million! That means that almost 10% of the Indian population will have diabetes before 2030! 65% of Chennai's population! India is urbanizing very quickly, which means that a very large number of Indians will have diabetes by 2050. 500 million would not be out of the question. THAT IS INSANE!

Great share. That's an amazing life saving project that these Indian scientists have been running over the last 18 years...:)

What happens in case of premature babies? They could be as less as 700gms but mother could have been fed well enough.

Eating too many high glycemic foods causes diabetes. It is not a secret. There are people who feed their pet monkeys junk food. The pet monkeys ask for more junk food like an addiction and easily get diabetes. It is important to eat a balanced meal. Consume carbs that have a low glycemic index or mix high glycemic foods with meats, chicken, fish, non-carb vegetables. It is how fast the spike in blood sugar that matters. One serving of white rice affects the upside to 10%.

Really good.

I have been overweight my whole life and thank you Lord no diabetes no hypertension and perfect health

This reminds me of Dr. Weston Price's studies.

So essentially, prenatal exposure to increased fat levels ready the cells by helping them adpot a certain insulin training pattern & become resilient to future fat flooding. However when cells are deprived of this training (aka low birth weight) their response to increased fat levels later in life is erratic & haywire.

Interesting!

+ massive increase in n-6 PUFA (SEED / "VEGETABLE" OILS) which are oxidised by sugars resulting from their high carbohydrate intakes. It's arguably the industrial oils that lead the causes.

Fascinating research. Alot of these diets look like they get plenty of macronutrients, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are poor in micronutrients. You can have a perfectly normal BMI and have excess fat stored around and in your organs (like the liver), and that puts you at risk for diabetes.

It’s called skinny fat. Meaning people have more fat than muscle on their body.

Diabetes is not about obesity, it’s caused by overeating carbs and sugar. Any thin person can do this.

I also had lifelong B12 deficiency which we did not know about until 4 or 5 years ago. My nerve damage was getting far worse so my neurologist tested for B12 and intrinsic factor and now I need to take a B12 injection every month at home.

Indian consume lot of white flour meal n sugar

Ive been thinking the bmi charts are stupid for a while now

coz of their over use of carbohydrates

Can I use your video clips for a work?

I was listening to a Standard lecture from a decade ago talk about this. Heredity is not just genetic. They noticed this after WWII in the Dutch population I believe, where the Nazi basically forced starvation there. A similar effect appeared there, and also in those children's children.

This has just blown my mind!!!

These guys are true scientists! Applaud them!

Nice video, for monitoring my glucose values I use Nightrider CGM with Libre sensor. I am able to get alarms for out of range readings, share readings with my endo and caregivers. It's the best method of tracking exercise, diet, and other activities on one platform.

Nice video, I use Libre and Nightrider which help my daily life a little easier and my fingers. It always updates glucose levels on the watch directly.

What term did he coin? I can't make it out...

Some brilliant science here!

Sure, understanding epigenetics is important, but isn't it easier to just stop shoveling sugar into a body that's slowly dying of too much sugar, and disregard the details of exactly how much sugar it takes to kill a specific person?

Good story. I just found out about this and have been obsessing over it. Luckily I don’t think my mother was malnourished and I was born at a normal weight.

Well done scientists, this research is very helpful for what had happen nowadays. Cos even skinny people are not always healthier, it gets worst for obese people too

The answer is - white carbs and refined sugar

Thank you Dr. Chittaranjan Yajnik and Dr. John Yudkin for your pioneering work. Thank you to the documentary film team for sharing this valuable knowledge with the masses. I am of South Asian ancestry, and my father was afflicted with this horrible disease of diabetes, and he passed away as a result of it. Now my mother has it as well. Not only is diabetes a horrible disease because it shortens ones life, it also severely diminishes the quality of life when you have developed it. So I really appreciate the new insight that you have provided because this issue is quite personal to me. The combined effect of low birth weights, B12 deficiencies in mothers, and abrupt generational change in food availability as a plausible explanation of why South Asians are so prone to diabetes is so interesting. It is far more illuminating than the common and dismissive rationale of simply ascribing the high rates of diabetes in this cohort to "its just genetics". One of the problems with rectifying the B12 deficiency in India is that the richest sources of bioavailable B12 comes from animal sources, and since a large portion of the Indian subcontinent is vegetarian for religious and cultural reasons, they probably are not getting enough of it. Even among the segment of the population that does eat meat, the portions they do eat are generally paltry. So you have most of the nation essentially denying their own future generations of the very substance that can help them ward off diabetes.

Very interesting and scary

Maybe they had diabetes all along. Its just recently with global studies and communication and testing, they are just now being discovered.

The parents of that Indian women had it, grandparents had it...and you're looking at western lifestyle?

You see? We think of Indians as eating healthy because so many of vegetarian or vegan. Trust me don't go vegetarian or vegan to lose weight it's just as easy to gain weight as it is to lose it. There is a lot of vegan junk food out there even eating too much fresh fruit is a bad thing too much of anything is a bad thing. I will say as I have said before the country is allowing this junk food in and the people are buying it when they don't have to! I gave up all of that processed food for the most part when I went vegan. I didn't go vegan to lose weight I went vegan for the right reasons but even before that I hadn't had anything fried or fast food in years and the last time I had fast food was two years ago I went to Wendy's and got a Blackberry lemonade because I was going to be 45 minutes on the road. People don't have to purchase the junk food I would rather have high quality food and less of it than junk food and more of it! People need to take responsibility and stop with the junk food! Yes it can be like an addiction but so is smoking and I quit smoking after 40 years I had my first cigarette at 8 years old and was a regular smoker by 12 years old. I moved where I live now and I quit overnight I couldn't smoke in here so I ordered Vape system which I have long since graduated from but I have not had a cigarette in nearly 4 years and I have cigarettes in the laundry room which are probably horribly stale. But what it shows is that I can live with cigarettes in the house and not open a pack and smoke it Outdoors. If I am extremely nervous or having anxiety I will pick up my vape and a cup of coffee and I don't think I will ever go back to cigarettes so it can be done and if you have children don't let them start! Don't make food a fun family thing on the weekend because you go to KFC and Taco Bell! Have game night or movie night make popcorn don't go out to the fast-food because there's nothing else to do. And don't bring it into your home. Indians used to bake and still do quite a bit at home and it's much healthier than buying pastries and candy bars in the shops. Elizabeth MD Ph.D food and nutrition science PhD microbiology

Indians have a misconception about healthy diet. We think that eating rice and roti is healthy. Indian traditional healthy diet is high calories carbohydrate based which was perfect for hard physical labor based lifestyle. But is a disastrous diet for the modern office and housewife based lifestyle. We do not realize how physically active our ancestors were to sustain that diet.

Combining insulin resistance with increased sugar and processed sugar intake has caused an epidemic. Sugar per se isn't bad, but some people are born without a good ability to produce insulin. Therefore they become pre diabetic or diabetic. Recent changes in the food industry are just bringing to light these health conditions that people already had. This documentary brings to light two problems. Malnutrition of a pregnant woman and diabetes, then it goes on to explain how the two may or may not be correlated.

Superb, I never knew this kind of study is going on in india

We been saying this for a long time. BMI cannot cross racial bounds like that. It’s different. People are built differently.

Yall in the comments acting like you know more about doctors and scientists who have spent days, even years studying this....lmao

Japan actually have a surprisingly high rate of "skinny diabetes" and I notice in Asian/Indian stores, the amazing array of snacks and sugary drinks.

I’m of Indian decent, 6’ 117lbs with a BMI around 17 with type 2 diabetes. The famines from British rule is a contributing factor.

Isn't this just the easily known fact that BMI is different for people with differing amounts of lean muscle mass? And that BMI is not exactly accurate as a measure of health?

Doctors need to stop being so myopic

This people must get Nobel Prize

Vegan and non-refined sugarist since October 2018 and havent felt better since. Because the of Mac Donalds, KFC, poptarts and candy the developing countries will also be diseased like most Westerners.

By the way, Black Americans have said for many years that BMI isn’t an accurate measure.

I see no mistery here: nobody said (or should not have said) that there's just one face of diabetes

i’ve been told that I was a skinny sickly baby, which almost didn’t make it. I am now 71 years of age and I have diabetes and a heart condition.If we are going to get at the truth we have to keep searching. I don’t believe we have the full answer yet. I don’t consider myself obese, but I do have a problem with vitamin B12 so I find this video very interesting.

Great documentary but one that's ever played contact sports like boxing, Rugby, American football and has had to go to the gym to gain muscle and weight knows BMI doesn't make sense.

11/08/2021 Speaking from my experience Losing weight is not easy But it's possible if we work Harder. Various reasons are linked to a sedentary lifestyle in overweight persons: physical limitations due to weight, associated diseases like diabetes and hypertension, tiredness due to sleep apnea, poor access to appropriate weight loss methods will not work. Try drinking warm water or warm tea. 🌎 Take care of your children And stop dragging them to Bad eating health.

John Yudkin? Any relation to John Yudkin, author of Pure, White and Deadly? the man who tried to warn us back in the 1950's that sugar consumption causes heart disease?

Less than 20 grams of carbs per day and zero seed oils to fix this…also, only eat once or twice a day.

its epidemic here in Philippines and the people are getting fat like the west, the western corporate food conglomerates see the markets in asia as very profitable

Dr. Joel Fuhrman writes and lectures that he thinks BMI over 22.5 is unhealthy.

I was recommended some new brand of insulin during an ad break in this vid... I mean, I know my online activity is tracked, but come on....

It's called insulin resistance...

Also, Greg Doucette has a word to share with Yudkin and Yajnik with their supposed 9 and 21% bodyfat.

I wish I could have seen this Video 5 years ago

Funny my mum is from India and lived through the period of 1943 and never mentioned this famine and a shortage of food. She mentioned the shortage of food when she came to this country in 1948 and going into the 50s.

The problem is also that when people tell other people about our body, what our risks are and what we need people refuse to listen, refuse to help, are nasty literally stop us from doing things that work because in their ego they know better and stupid us even when they don’t. People won’t help even when we tell them outright and beg them to listen and help in the way we need help. Lots of them don’t want to give. They have paternalism and infantilize and decide they know best about our own body and situation and “fix” things in ways that make things worse! Everyone is such a genius on everyone else’s life and destroys it “for your own good.” Literally we are doing things that work and people intervene and stop us, then later when they create their own mess and problem they think they are going to fix us again and control and manipulate us to fix problems they created with their ego and selfishness and nastiness. There is literally a cure for every disease except human ego selfishness hate and nastiness.

I'm 5'10 and I'm around 177 pounds which puts me in the overweight range (25.3 bmi) but I have a body fat percentage of around 22 percent. I'm from Pakistan. My father who is 47 is also overweight , he also smokes some times but he hasn't faced any hypertension or diabetes. I think people who are thin naturally can develop some bad eating habits because their metabolism makes it hard for them to gain weight , so they aim to gain weight and eat whatever they want. When these people get in the normal weight range , they carry a lot of body fat but have thinner arms and legs. This indicates a lack of muscle. This phenomenon is also called 'skinny fat'. People become skinny fat because these people are sedentary or have bad eating habits. I think even vegertarinism has some role too in this because this diet consists of high carbs and low protein if these people people eat more protein they would have 9 percent body fat at a BMI of 22.1 like that British guy in the video. Eating habits should be monitored amount these people and if they eat bad they will become skinny fat. A prime example is my cousin who was too thin in his childhood but started eating too much and then started eating too much junk food and now he has gained a lot of belly fat and has no muscle definition , so it means he's skinny fat and needs muscular development. Now everyone in the healthy weight range is not skinny fat unless they have 25 percent body fat or more. People who are naturally heavier also carry more lean muscle mass for example thick arms and legs that's why they have a good muscle to fat ratio. Even with a heavy figure these people are metabolically healthy.

They suffer from being skinny fat. High body fat %. They notoriously eat very little protein. Muscle mass acts as a carbohydrate bank storing glycogen. Surplus blood sugar causes insulin resistance. Lift some weights and eat protein!

India, as far I remember, is the biggest sugar producer in the world. Although looking healthy, Indian kitchen is packed with sugar. Sugar, white rice, perfect recipe for diabetes.

Maybe it has something to do with low muscle mass?

And why are they low in B12? No meat