Is the British rule cause of our poor health

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India called the diabetic capital of world. The estimates in 2019 showed that 77 million had diabetes in India. Expected to rise to over 134 million by 2045. This is true for South Asia - prominently India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Combined population of these countries is around 2 billion.
Food choices and lifestyle thought to be the real culprit. Now new research shows that British rule is also responsible for poor health , particularly diabetes for the people of South Asia.
In 1820, India's GDP was 16% of the global GDP. By 1870, it had fallen to 12%, and by 1947 to 4%.
When the British left , India was one of poorest region of the world. No medical infrastructure and its traditional medicine method ayurveda, yoga and unani were in ruins.
British Colonialism legacy - frequent famine during their rule is responsible for poor health of Indians.
During the 89 years of British colonial rule over the South Asia, there were approximately 25 major famines. These famines killed at least 60 million Indians. In the 2,000 years before British rule , there were just 17 famines.
Drought played a role and the impact was devastating because of the policy of the British government.
The Southern India famine of 1876-1878 killed 5.6 million - 9.6 million people.
The Bengal famine of 1943 killed more than three million people in eastern India.
Churchill Era British policy was directly linked to this famine. Churchill has been quoted as blaming the famine on the fact Indians were “breeding like rabbits”, and asking how, if the shortages were so bad, Mahatma Gandhi was still alive.
Epigenetics refers to how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work and how those changes are inherited by following generations. Unlike genetic changes (mutations), epigenetic changes are reversible
Because of repeated cycles of feast or famine periods -- people developed the ability to efficiently store energy from food as fat.
The environmental impact of famines has made south Asian genes starvation adapted. The starvation adaptation has meant that many south Asian bodies have become insulin resistant.
In insulin sensitive person, when they eat food , the body releases less insulin because the their cells can take sugar without any resistance and excess is stored as fat. When glucose is down, their insulin is also down. So the body starts utilizing stored sugar ( glycogen) and fat. So energy is always available, even if we've not eaten for a while.
South Asian genes have adapted to hold on to energy for as long as possible, to survive repeated periods of starvation and famine.
By becoming resistant to insulin, it's harder for muscle and liver cells to absorb sugar from the blood. As a result, more sugar often gets stored as fat where it can be used much later when there's a shortage of food.
However, the theory is by no means proven and has been repeatedly challenged.
The alternative theory would suggest while those of European descent have had more time to adapt to foods that can raise insulin and lead to diabetes , population that were exposed to these foods more recently ( within the last 100 years or so) are suffering the consequences more dramatically.
A comparison with the various populations reveals that people who have emigrated and adopted a western diet invariably have higher rates of insulin resistance than their counterparts in their countries of origin following a more traditional lifestyle and diet.
In other words, it is one thing to have genes that might increase our likelihood of developing insulin resistance, but it’s another to put those genes into the wrong lifestyle.
Our daily decisions matter at least as much as our genetics.
Despite the general acknowledgement by the scientific community that
‘Genetics loads the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger’.

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Very informative