This Island Started Eating Like America and Now They're Plagued With Diabetes

Here's what a non-communicable disease crisis looks like: It's midday on a Wednesday in tiny, tropical Palau, an island in the western Pacific with a population of 20,000. The forecast is balmy. Then the sirens start up again. A diabetic grandmother sits up on her veranda, looks out at the road, and settles back down. "Another ambulance," she murmurs. Its destination: Palau National Hospital, the unlikely epicenter of one of the world's worst diabetes crises.