this is one of the few diet plans proven to promote weight loss.
Posted on 11/13/2006 9:19:04 PM PST by Brian Allen
Escalating rates of diabetes among indigenous cultures could make the Maori and Polynesian races "extinct" before the end of the century, an Australian expert warns.
Professor Paul Zimmet, director of Monash University's International Diabetes Institute, said the rising number of diabetes victims among the world's indigenous communities would decimate entire cultures. "Without urgent action there certainly is a real risk major wipings out of indigenous communities, if not total extinction, within this century," he said.
"Life expectancy is already low and dropping, diabetes is hitting them very hard and the infections, amputations and kidney disease will just wreak more havoc."
Professor Zimmet labeled rising world diabetes rates – with the disease affecting one in four "indigenous" adults – a tragedy threatening to consume world economies and bankrupt "health systems."
Extinction was a "very real reality" and Australia's Aborigines were just as much at risk as Maori and Pacific Island populations and native peoples in the United States and Canada, he said. Professor Zimmet will discuss his findings at a Diabetes in "Indigenous People" Forum, which opened in Melbourne yesterday.
The claims have split experts in New Zealand. Professor Chris Cunningham, of Massey's Research Centre for Maori Health, agreed with Professor Zimmet's dire prediction, describing diabetes among Maori as being at "epidemic proportions".
Little research and screening had been carried out into the disease's prevalence among Maori and Pacific Island populations, but Professor Cunningham suspected well over half of those with diabetes did not know they had the disease.
Professor Cunningham said Maori and Pacific islanders were more susceptible to diabetes as they were not physiologically accustomed to the Western lifestyle and diet.
"The reality is a Big Mac hurts Maori more than it hurts Caucasians."
The onset of type-2 diabetes is generally triggered by obesity.
Though it usually strikes in adulthood, increasing numbers of teenagers and children are developing the disease.
Health Ministry figures show type-2 diabetes is thought to account for 20 per cent of deaths among Maori, compared with 4 per cent for non-Polynesian New Zealanders.
Maori males are 61/2 times more likely and Maori females 10 times more likely to die from diabetes than non-Polynesian people, while Pacific peoples are five times more likely to die from diagnosed diabetes than non-Polynesians.
Porirua's Ora Toa health unit manager, Charlene Williams, who is from a family with a history of diabetes, did not believe Maori would become extinct.
"They've said this about us before and we're still here." Most Maori with diabetes developed it later in life, after they had children.
Fight the Obesity Epidemic spokeswoman Robyn Toomath, a Wellington Hospital endocrinologist, said Maori and Pacific Islanders were genetically more susceptible to obesity and therefore to developing diabetes. But the waistline of all New Zealanders was expanding.
Health Ministry chief clinical adviser Sandy Dawson said the Government paid close attention to addressing the disparity in ethnic rates of diabetes.
Diagnosing diabetes early is a specific priority for the Ministry of Health, District Health Boards and Primary Health Organizations.
Last year an estimated 125,000 people were diagnosed as diabetic. Twenty two per cent of them were Maoris.
Message?
Assimilate or die!
Nature's God Rules!
This may be the next angle in the attempt to tobacco-ize fast food by the Left: Fast food is racist!
Sooooo, If I get a job my diabetes will go away?
I've heard before that the Western diet is a real problem for Native American, Hispanic and Black groups. When they stick to their native ancestral diet, they don't have this problem.
<< Fast food is racist! >>
"Liberals" are.
<< I've heard before that the Western diet is a real problem for Native American, Hispanic and Black groups. >>
Assimilation cures all ills.
That said, you can still get some of the best fry bread anywhere on the reservation!
PBS had a show about that, it focused on Native Americans living in the desert southwest.
Due to the desert conditions, times of plenty are pretty rare. So when high-carb, high-fat food items are available, they totally load up on them - then go back for seconds.
There seems to be some genetic dispositions to be very, very efficient at the storing of calories.
Interesting show.
New Zealand ping
We should all eat more fish. No wait, the fish are going extinct too.
The libs need to deal with it.
That being said, the cure may be simple.
Not sure, but I think it was the University of Hawaii that has tried to fight obesity in native Hawaiians by putting them on an old fashioned Hawaiian diet. Fish, poi, and stuff like that. They seemed to have some success.
If the Maoris didn't always have a high susceptibility to diabetes then going back to their native diet might work.
this is one of the few diet plans proven to promote weight loss.
I believe I watched the show on PBS (if it is the same one). It was very interesting.
<< If the Maoris didn't always have a high susceptibility to diabetes then going back to their native diet might work. >>
But why bother, when assimilation WILL "work."
(OR: What is it about "evolution" that the Darwinists are having the greatest difficulty with? Two or three too many syllables for them, perhaps?)
Tell me more about your Atkins experience, please? (As in any variation from the standard diet, as published, etceteras)
I'm 230 pounds going on 165 and need all the help I can get!
Thanks in anticipation - Brian
The life expectancy was 35-40 years. Now it is 65-70 years.
Why? Big Macs! It sure is a killer!
<< We should all eat more fish. No wait, the fish are going extinct too. >>
I'd drink to that ....
.... 'Cept I don't drink!
<< Why? Big Mac! It sure is a killer! >>
The anti-Civilizationalists, like this study's authors and commentators, are always fishing for ways to attack our Judeo-Christian/Western/Human Civilization's foundations, edifices and institutions.
World wide, it's beginning to look as though Fast Food's number came up.
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