Why are those Pacific islanders such fatties? Four countries where over 50% of the adult population is obese! No wonder that they have such high rates of type 2 diabetes.
Apparently it is partly genetic, and partly due to a diet of salt and carbohydrate rich imported processed foods. On somewhere like Nauru, most of the arable land was destroyed by the phosphate mine, so they are dependent on exported food. There is also a culture of being large and even obese as a sign of wealth, so there is a certain social status involved in being obese, and there is apparently very little public education regarding the negative health impacts of obesity. Along with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease is also a real problem.