According to a latest study, a wifes obese condition can not only up her diabetes risk but her husbands too.

Obesity is a disorder involving excessive body fat that increases the risk of various other health problems. For the longest time, experts have studied the effect of obesity on an individual in detail, but according to a latest study, a wife’s obese condition can not only up her diabetes risk but her husband’s too. The study revealed that obesity can substantially increase her risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, especially in middle age — but women with an obese husband have no additional risk.

The study revealed that for every 5 kg/m2 higher BMI in a wife, the husband’s Type 2 diabetes risk was 21 per cent higher when accounting for the man’s own BMI.
Adam Hulman from Aarhus University in Denmark said, “Having an obese wife increases a man’s risk of diabetes over and above the effect of his own obesity level, while among women, having an obese husband gives no additional diabetes risk beyond that of her own obesity level.”

“Our results indicate that on finding obesity in a person, screening of their spouse for diabetes may be justified,” Hulman added.

The research, also suggests that people over 55 with a spouse with Type 2 diabetes tend to be more obese than their peers without a diabetic partner.

The study presented at the 2017 European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Lisbo further explained that obesity or Type 2 diabetes in one partner could lead to Type 2 diabetes in the other due to the many risk behaviours which often leads to diabetes shared by couples, such as unhealthy eating habits and inadequate physical activity.

“Recognising shared risk between spouses may improve diabetes detection and motivate couples to increase collaborative efforts to eat more healthily and boost their activity levels,” Hulman said.



From heart diseases to diabetes, being heavily overweight can prove to be a harbinger of many health risks. Here are some effective ways  which can come in handy to tackle obesity:

1.Include more whole grains in your meal: .Whole grain provide energy to sustain and grow and are also a major source of all essential nutrients. Ditch processed cereals and load up on whole grains like Bajra, Ragi, Maize and Jowar, and use them often. Try brown rice instead of white rice .

2.Keep the trans fats away: Industrial trans fats are often present in fast foods, street snacks, fried foods, cookies, margarine and spreads. Read the labels; if there is no label, find a better substitute.

3.Do not skip meals: Eat three balanced meals. Take a standard dinner plate, fill ½ with vegetables, 1/3rd with cereal, 1/3rd with protein, and add 150 ml of milk/dahi/dessert.

4.Limit your intake of sugar: Sugar is a source of many excess calories which practically does nothing for your body, and goes on storing as fat. While it is important to stay away from refined sugars, do note that a lot of foods have natural sugar hidden in them too. It  is advisable to keep the  intake less than 10% of your total calories. For a normal weight woman who needs 1900Kcal/day this is about 10 -11 teaspoons of sugar.

5.Eat protein with every meal: Proteins take longer to digest which means that they keep you full for longer and also help in reducing the total body fat. Having protein-rich foods like amaranth, sprouts, peas, and eggs helps in accelerating weight.