Posted on 02/11/2008 6:54:44 PM PST by blam
Spam at heart of South Pacific obesity crisis
By Nick Squires In Sydney
Last Updated: 12:32pm GMT 11/02/2008
It was lampooned by Monty Python and spurned by British shoppers, but Spam is fuelling a "raging epidemic" of diabetes, strokes and heart disease among the previously lithe inhabitants of the South Pacific.
Another of Britain's colonial culinary legacies - corned beef - is also being blamed for a rise in obesity-related illnesses in countries once known for muscled warriors and slim-hipped maidens.
Many islanders drive to the local shop to buy tins of spam
Countries across the region - many of them former British territories, from Tonga to Tuvalu - are struggling to deal with a health crisis caused by poor diet and not enough exercise.
Where once islanders ate fish, vegetables and coconuts, burning off excess calories by casting nets from canoes and farming small plots of land, now they eat tinned, processed food and drive to the nearest shop.
Once confined to the South Pacific's somnolent capitals, the problem of obesity has now spread to outlying islands.
"Even if you go into a store in a remote village you'll find shelves of Spam and corned beef," said Dr Jan Pryor, the director of research at the Fiji School of Medicine.
"In the past it was unusual for anyone to have a stroke under 50, now people are having strokes in their twenties and thirties. You see it every day."
Figures from the World Health Organisation show that Pacific island nations make up eight of the world's 10 most obese countries.
"What we have in this country is a raging epidemic. We have 6,000 to 8,000 cases of diabetes out of a population of 53,000 people," said Carl Hacker, the director of economic policy and planning in the Marshall Islands.
"What is unfolding here is a physical disaster and a fiscal disaster."
The single-island nation of Nauru, which faces economic disaster in the wake of its Australian-run refugee detention centre closing down last week, heads the list with 94.5 per cent of people older than 15 defined as obese.
Similar problems are repeated across the South Pacific.
"When I was a child, there was less imported food, we would eat local food, which was high carbohydrate, low sugar and high fibre," said Dr Malokai Ake, the chief medical officer for public health in Tonga.
"We would walk or ride on a horse to work in the plantations and spend a lot of time fishing, swimming or diving.
"The amount of calories people have every day now, we used to only have on feast days."
Researchers have suggested Pacific Islanders have a genetic disposition to obesity. They say their metabolism has learned to cope over thousands of years with times of plenty and periods of famine by quickly storing surplus calories as body fat.
Tonga's late king, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who died in 2006, was once renowned as the world's heaviest monarch, weighing in at 440lbs.
He tried to persuade his subjects to lose weight by taking up - in his seventies - regular bicycle rides up and down the runway of the country's international airport.
But education has not been enough to curb the growth of obesity, largely because of economics.
It is cheaper to buy "mutton flaps" - belly cuts from sheep which are high in saturated fat - from New Zealand and Australia, or "turkey tails" from the US, than fresh local fish.
Some countries have tried banning the most unhealthy imports.
Fiji banned the importation of mutton flaps in 2000 and Samoa banned imports of turkey tails in 2007.
Like Spam can rot.
This issue sounds like the same problem faced by our own indigenous population (particularly Navajos). They have a high rate of diabetes and obesity, but it’s not caused by eating Spam. More likely it’s because they eat a lot of junk food and drink gallons of soda pop. I’ve seen it firsthand.
Wow. My kids would consider that diet to be child abuse.
I’ve lived in Hawaii and Tonga. As a nurse, having studied nutrition, and observed South Pacific culture, this is complete B.S. I can’t emphasis “complete B.S.” enough.
I grew up in the 50’s and Spam was a regular in our house. We usually ate it fried. In fact, quite a bit of what we ate was fried...like fried bologna sandwiches. My mother also used to cut up hotdogs, fry them with onions, and then mix in canned tomatoes. I even used to eat liverwurst when I was a kid. Can’t stand the smell of the stuff now. Never had Vienna sausages.
The Late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV with adviser.
I like Spam tho not really really well. It is good if not eaten too often. I think a steady diet of it would quickly get old.
Dare one ask how you know that the taste of spam resembles haunch'o'human...and if that knowledge comes from personal experience?
:-)
Long pig.
Long pig.
Okay, y’all, looks like it’s time for a change in diet...
Like, perhaps, dried fish and poi?
Now that's funny.
Would it be Spam or OVEREATING? just a thot.
Sporkweasels make good eats? Who knew?!
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