A sugar tax can ensure that there is less sugar in cola, or that people will buy less of it. That is a healthy step for everyone and especially for Hindustani Dutch. They run a relatively higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
Years ago, medical research showed that no less than 40 percent of the 60-year-old Hindustani from The Hague suffer from type 2 diabetes.
Measuring waist circumference
The reason for this has not yet been fully elucidated, but it is certain that a change in diet can help prevent it. Pharmacist Prem Adhien, a Hindu himself, is therefore on a warm August day at the Milan festival in The Hague.
This is a food, drink and music festival mainly attended by the Hindu community. Adhien measures the waist circumference of visitors and gives advice on healthy food.
Potentially diabetic
Adhien, who is in his late 40s, was also overweight. He saw his reflection a few years ago and thought: ‘I am exactly my uncles’. Those uncles, like many others in Adhien’s environment, had by now developed diabetes.
The pharmacist wanted to prevent that for himself. “I came back from a holiday abroad in 2016 and thought: ‘I am potentially diabetic’. I then started lifestyle adjustments myself and lost 10 kilos.”
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‘That’s part of it’
With his background as a pharmacist, Adhien knew what to do. But it’s not easy for everyone to figure that out. In addition, there is a sense of destiny. “They have the idea that diabetes is part of it. See their uncle, grandfather everyone had it.”
According to Adhien, the food culture within the Hindu community plays a major role. “We eat a lot of carbohydrates, for example a plate with 80 percent white rice, vegetables and potatoes. Hindus are vegetarians and therefore eat alternative protein sources. Legumes for example, but that is also a huge boost of carbohydrates.”
Adjust eating pattern
According to Adhien, adjustments can be made good. Although that does take some getting used to. “I started eating brown rice instead of white rice. The first week I couldn’t eat it, but after that I did.”
“Just like with tea, I used to drink tea with three scoops of sugar. I left that sugar out. So I slowly increased the carbohydrates. And then I started moving. Not in the gym, but taking the stairs instead of the elevator, that sort of thing.”
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In prevention mode
Adhien is not pleased with the Dutch policy for healthier food. He thinks it is far from the people. “I think the prevention policy does not affect many people, people zap mailbox 51-like messages, while it is important to make them aware.”
Adhien prefers to do this in a smaller circle at the Milan festival in The Hague. “At the Milan (Hindustani for ‘meeting’) we measure and give advice. Nutritional advice, for example, and we also say it if we think it is good for someone to contact the doctor. Look, then you enter prevention mode.”
Lots of soft drinks
Adhien considers the fact that there is still no tax on sugary soft drinks in the Netherlands as a missed opportunity. “Hindustani drink a lot of soft drinks. At a party you don’t see a table with beer and wine, but a table with a lot of soft drinks and some whiskey.”
If there were less sugar in that soft drink, Adhien thinks, that would be much better. International research shows that if extra tax is levied on sugar and if this is passed on to the manufacturer, less sugar is put in the soft drink.
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