New Caledonia will hold a series of events over the next week to highlight the problems caused by diabetes.
An estimated ten percent of the population has the disease, with 95 percent of them diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which is often linked to life-style.
The campaign will point to the need for a balanced diet and exercise at a time when more than half of the people are overweight.
A doctor, Dominique Megraoua, says she has seen patients who eat three chickens for breakfast and drink ten litres of Coca Cola a day.
She says diabetes is a disease of the poor in rich countries, adding that New Caledonia is rich but has huge inequality.
The incidence of diabetes in New Caledonia is three times higher than in mainland France.
Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
