Being raised in the UK in a South Asian household, I heard stories about the partition in India and the awful atrocities that occurred in the process as if that was where the story began. What story you ask? How we got here of course. And no, I don’t mean how we physically got here in the UK, but that’s what I thought it meant too back then. But like all the other stories, it was just a tale from the past which was long long ago as it had no importance or immediate impact on me.
Now, years later, as an adult, I chose a career in the fitness industry and started helping women with their fitness goals, and I started close to home. I started seeing the reluctance and barriers/excuses that held them back, and the all too familiar memories of Growing up as a South Asian girl in the 80’s and 90’s all came back to me. The stereotype of girls being discouraged from participating in physical activity for cultural and religious reasons. Being from the South Asian community, I already understood how common diabetes and heart disease were and how they were sometimes considered inevitable with growing old. They generally blame the diet.
It wasn’t till I was in university studying sports science that I discovered some missing pieces to the puzzle. You would think by my mid-30s, I would understand my heritage and genetic ancestry, but like many, I was still oblivious. For my final year project, I investigated the lack of understanding about exercise in the South Asian female community. It wasn’t the study topic itself that shook me, but the background discovery. It quickly became a rabbit hole, and my 7,000-word dissertation suddenly seemed too short to explain everything.
Firstly, The statistics were loud and clear. You only have to type up South Asian diabetes, and you will find facts such as “The likelihood of developing t2 diabetes is as much as six times higher in South Asians than in Europeans” and suggestions that South Asians need to exercise twice as much as their counterparts to gain the same health benefits, but the exercise “guidelines” in the UK don’t even mention this even though 7.5% of the UK population is south Asian. But why? What could possibly cause this. The main known culprits are low ‘high-density lipoprotein’ and insulin resistance found in South Asians. These cause a predisposition to metabolic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, but what is causing these?
Now the rabbit hole which may explain why. Until India gained independence in 1947, For centuries, starvation plagued the nation, partly as a by-product of colonial times (another rabbit hole). To explain it briefly, The British ruled over India for 89 years, and during this time millions died from poverty and starvation due to famines (some of which were caused by drought and exacerbated by high taxes and failed policies. Millions died whilst the British exported wheat and rice back to Britain, ignoring the famine. There were 25 major famines during this time, The Bengal famine being the worst, where over 3 million people died whilst Prime Minister Winston Churchill prioritised the war and refused food to the people of Bengal. There is a plethora of information online regarding the British rule (the British Raj).
Epigenetics: The study of how our environment and behaviours can cause changes that effect the way our genes work and how the changes can be inherited by following generations. South Asians are starvation-adapted due to having survived at least 31 famines, esp during the 18th and 19th centuries. Surviving one famine doubles the risks of diabetes and obesity in the next generation even without a famine, and the risk of cardiovascular disease increases 2.7 times for their grandchildren. Exposure to even one famine has a multi-generational effect of causing metabolic disorders inc diabetes, hyperglycemia and cardiovascular disease, never mind 24 major famines in 54 year period!
How does this affect us now?
There is a Major lack of awareness of how our past is affecting our futures.
ALL of this was news to me (in my late 30’s) and there will many who have had the same experience. Storing nutrients was an evolutionary response to famine, and our genetics are still equipped to survive a famine even though the threat no longer exists. Our adaptation to scarce food availability is not suitable for our environment of food abundance, which explains why South Asians living the same lifestyle as non-South Asians will process differently.
We have a multifactorial perfect storm which explains the predisposition. South Asians are still reeling from the physical and mental effects of colonial times and more awareness needs to be raised about the historical atrocities and their contemporary implications mentally and physically. Awareness will help us pay closer attention to diet, exercise, sleep and stress and will help us navigate our lives better and cater to our bodies accordingly.
History still impacts us, and if we want to change the statistics we need to start from inside out.
If you are intrigued, Some interesting sources of information are available at:
“Inglorious Empire” by Shashi Tharoor (book)
Podcast “empire” by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand.
This podcast is a deep dive into the colonial reign and beyond and is my favourite at the moment.
A digitised copy of “Famines and land assessments in India” by Romesh C.Dutt is available at: