It's not helped by the abandonment of fresh traditional foods and their replacement with highly processed imported foods, such as canned spaghetti and corned be

It's not helped by the abandonment of fresh traditional foods and their replacement with highly processed imported foods, such as canned spaghetti and corned beef. Polynesian countries are also large importers of cheap fatty cuts of meat that aren't eaten in more developed nations, such as turkey tails and lamb flaps (both of which are delicious, but incredibly fatty). The traditional Polynesian diet is quite healthy, fresh fish, root vegetables like yams and taro (as well as their leaves), and coconuts. You have to eat a lot to get fat eating that kind of food. One thing I noticed when travelling Fiji (not geographically Polynesia, but culturally) is that outside of the cities this kind of diet is fairly common, and obesity is a lot less common. Most Samoans and Tongans I know back in New Zealand have terrible diets. They basically eat white bread, tinned spaghetti, corned beef, instant noodles, and rotisserie chickens. I had a mate who would for dinner would put back a whole chicken and 5 packs of noodles; or a loaf of white bread, 2 tins of spaghetti and a tin of corned beef. He worked in demolition and did boxing as a sport, so he burned the calories, but it was completely lacking in proper nutrition, just carbs and sodium.