Diabetes: Nothing Good to Eat

The tiny, idyllic Pacific islands which make up the Kingdom of Tonga are setting for an unlikely and acute health crisis. With around 90% of Tongans overweight or obese, and with rates of diabetes in adults approaching 40%, Tongans have seen health deteriorate and life expectancy fall. Katy Watson explores the relationship between size and status in deeply religious Tonga, and hears how a decades-old policy of importation has led to the abandonment of the traditional Tongan diet in favour of foods which many blame for soaring rates of type 2 diabetes.

Tonga was almost untouched by diabetes two generations ago but a diabetes specialist at the local hospital tells Katy how she is “drowning” from her workload. Katy also speaks to a visionary Church Minister who preaches healthy eating. He says it’s up to the church to transform the health of the Kingdom, and that people here are now dying from too much, rather than too little.

Katy hears from the Health Minister, who thinks charging for healthcare could be the solution. Katy also speaks to those fighting to restrict imports of the infamous “mutton flaps” - cheap high fat offcuts of meat that some feel are unfairly dumped on the Pacific Islands without a thought for peoples’ health.