Asian Americans are more likely to develop Type II Diabetes.

New studies are showing Asian Americans are more likely likely to develop Type II Diabetes than white Americans, even though they have a low rate of obesity. The results are quite surprising, given the fact that Asian Americans have a much better BMI (body mass index) compared to other ethnic groups. Asian Indians had the highest rate of diabetes, followed by Filipinos, other Asians, Chinese.

These puzzling results suggest that maybe there should be different definitions of obesity for different ethnic populations. This might be  due to different associations between BMI, percentage of fat, and health risks in comparison between Asians and Europeans, for example.

Youths from other ethnic minorities, especially Native Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and African Americans are at risk of complications of diabetes before the age of 35. For example, nearly 50 percent of African American children born in the US are expected to develop diabetes in their lifetime.