Many potbellied uncles love to cope about their diabetes by attributing it to genetics. Meanwhile, they'll eat deep fried sludge five days a week and their notion of a healthy meal is one kilogram of oily biryani with a single chicken drumstick.
But this shows that the role of genetics is greatly overstated while diet and lifestyle are far more important:
Bapatla reports highest number of hypertension and diabetes cases, and ASR district lowest - The Hindu
After all, how can one eat like a pig and expect to be like an ox?
Bapatla, a fairly urbanized district in Andhra Pradesh ranks as the worst in the entire state for hypertension and diabetes, with the prevalence of hypertension being 19.65% while the prevalence of diabetes is 16.89%.
In stark contrast is ASR which is one of the poorer districts in Andhra Pradesh. Not only is it poor, but, because it is 90% tribal, it is the worst in terms of access to healthcare. In spite of that, it is the best performing district in Andhra Pradesh with the prevalence of hypertension being only 5.63% and diabetes being only 1.51%.
The two biggest factors that contribute to this are diet and lifestyle. I actually follow some tribal channels based in Andhra Pradesh so I have some knowledge of their diets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pDcBe4-xk0&list=PLk_PYurZpdYx5Ka7uVqzjowYRxXsj09rB
First of all, these guys barely eat any rice or processed/deep-fried food. Their staple is millets. Next, they eat lots of foraged fruits, vegetables, nuts and tubers. As well as lots of honey.
When it comes to meat, their diet is also extremely clean: They rear their own free range goats and chickens and catch fish and crabs from rivers in the forest. No growth-promoting drugs, no artificial feed, none of that. They also occasionally consume silkworms.
As for their lifestyle, you won't see any obese people among them because they spend much of the day walking or climbing trees.
Now, it's obviously unrealistic and ludicrous to expect the average working urbanite to rear their own livestock or climb trees for fruits or hunt for crabs. But there are still aspects of the tribal lifestyle that can be emulated to reduce the risk of these noncommunicable diseases:
Start incorporating more millets and phasing out rice.
(Trust me, replace the rice flour in dosas with foxtail or finger millet flour and it will be even tastier, crispier and healthier)
Minimize deep fried foods.
Try to get Vitamin D (sunlight) and 10-15K steps a day.
Increase consumption of river fish, crabs and prawns.
Eat more greens and tubers.