A diabetes specialist has urged policymakers and the wider community to examine the underlying issues that cause type 2 diabetes to protect the next generation “from developing the condition so unnecessarily”.

According to David Cavan, who was speaking at Argus’ launch of the Diabetes Reversal Programme this morning, Bermuda’s high rate of diabetes is down to the “physical and food environment in which we live”.

“It is a result of our modern-day lifestyle, characterised by unhealthy foods and drinks, especially those that are high in sugar, and by low levels of physical activity,” Dr Cavan said.

Noting that it was “uncommon” just a generation ago, he added that “the high rate of diabetes in Bermuda is not a question of people suddenly deciding to live unhealthy lives — it is a question of the physical and food environment in which we live”.

Unlike type 1 diabetes — an autoimmune disease caused by the pancreas producing insufficient insulin — type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance that is associated with lifestyle and diet. It happens when the body no longer produces enough insulin — a hormone that enables people to use the sugar from foods eaten to provide energy — or cannot use it as effectively.

Pointing to grocery stores where sugary drinks and foods “are sold in large portions and at low prices”, Dr Cavan added that “in contrast, healthy foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables are actually quite expensive”.

“Furthermore, many of the island’s favourite dishes are high in starch that the body turns into yet more sugar.”

He also noted that many people have office-based jobs “where they sit down all day”, and the island’s narrow roads with no sidewalks “can make it feel positively dangerous to venture out for a walk of a cycle — a real disincentive to being physically active”.

While Dr Cavan urged anyone with type 2 diabetes to sign up for the new programme, which is being offered to Argus clients for free on a voluntary basis, he also encouraged “policymakers and the wider community to examine what can be done to tackle the underlying issues that cause type 2 diabetes, in order to protect the next generation from developing the condition so unnecessarily.”

Dr Cavan is the author of the books Reverse Your Diabetes: the step by step plan to take control of type 2 diabetes, and Reverse Your Diabetes Diet. He was a consultant physician at the Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, one of the leading public health diabetes centres in Britain, and has acted as the director of policy and programmes at the International Diabetes Federation.