In the oil-exporting Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the economic growth and development of the past three decades have been dramatic. This socio-economic progress has brought benefits to many people in the region, such as improved access to health care, education, and safe drinking water. However, economic development has set the scene for the transformation of lifestyles, eating habits, and traditional societal and family structures in the region. These changes are not all for the better. In fact, lifestyle-related noncommunicable health conditions are having an increasingly negative impact on the health of many adults and children. Abduelmula R Abduelkarem reports from the UAE on the growing health burden provoked by obesity-driven type 2 diabetes in young people in the country.