Diet, Ethnicity and the Metabolic Syndrome

The South Asian population in the United Kingdom has been reported to be at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. These two chronic diseases are the end result of a condition known as the metabolic syndrome. Although metabolic syndrome and its association to dietary patterns has been reported in various studies, most research has focused on Western countries and ethnic minority populations have been overlooked to a great extent. Using detailed dietary information the objective of this work was to describe the dietary patterns of South Asians and to investigate their association with metabolic syndrome risk factors. Further, the study aimed to recognize lifestyle risk factors associated to ethnicity including religion, acculturation, education level and income. Although results were in accordance with the existing literature in terms of diet composition, the examination of additional risk factors demonstrates the importance of developing public health prevention strategies tailored to the different minority ethnic groups in the UK's heterogeneous population.