The Chairman of Diabetes UK is going to encourage Bermuda's insurance community to offer discounts for policy holders who practise healthy lifestyles when he speaks at Colonial Insurance next Thursday.

Sir Michael Hirst said it was important for Bermuda's insurance companies to realise the essential role that they could play in preventing the spread of diabetes, which he called "the silent killer".

In his native Scotland, Sir Michael said he gets a "no-claims discount" from his insurance company for not having any accidents in his car.

Much in the same way, those people who eat healthy diets and exercise regularly should pay less for their health insurance as they had much less chance of getting diabetes, he said at the Hamilton Rotary on Tuesday.

"I suspect if they had a policy holder who needed to lose weight and exercise, this client would be a greater risk to them than a healthier individual," he said. "I think insurance companies are extremely influential. They charge for their services, and have the flexibility to say we cost the product according to risk. The facts are a healthy person is a better risk than an obese person. The underwriting results will very, very quickly drive policy decisions."

Sir Michael said did not want to start a war between the manufacturers of energy rich foods that are popular with young people and the insurance companies.

Instead he said he was looking forward to opening a dialogue with insurance companies and perhaps encouraging them to collaborate with food manufacturers.

He said his own daughter Kate needs three to four injections of insulin per day for the rest of her life to stay alive.

Kate Hirst has Type 1 diabetes, which is not a result of an unbalanced diet and lack of exercise like Type 2 diabetes.

"There are 220 million people with diabetes globally," he said, "The overwhelming majority of these are Type 2 diabetics."

Sir Michael said the risk of developing diabetes increased exponentially with being overweight.

A body mass index (BMI) is one way of measuring the risks of becoming diabetic, he said.

"Divide your weight in kilos by your height in metres," he said.

People with a body mass index of 25 were healthy, but people with a BMI of 30 had a tenfold chance of being diabetic.

"If your BMI is over 35 you have an eightyfold chance of being diabetic," he said.