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Wow Tonga is running away with it. Based on their population apparently just under 30,000 more people got wicked fat in 8 years? What have they been eating on t

Wow Tonga is running away with it. Based on their population apparently just under 30,000 more people got wicked fat in 8 years? What have they been eating on that island

sshine 2y ago
> What have they been eating on that island One theory: - Their original food culture was wiped by colonialism - Now they rely on imported foods without regard for its composition Phrased differently: It is easier for imported foods to beat existing options, because the island culture does not preserve attractive options so well. And it is easy for imported foods to be unhealthy. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-08-29-obesity-pacific-islands-%E2%80%98-colonial-legacy%E2%80%99-settlers-trying-civilise-locals https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-08-29-obesity-pacific-islands... > ... Pacific islanders are more prone to obesity than people in other nations. Now a new study led by the University of Oxford has examined why islanders on Nauru and in the Cook Islands in the Pacific have the highest levels and fastest rates of obesity increase in the world. On both the islands, between 1980 and 2008 the increase in the average body mass index was four times higher than the global average. The paper, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, provides a novel theory for why obesity levels are so high there. It suggests that social changes, introduced when the islands were under colonial rule, have significantly contributed to unhealthy dietary habits.
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  Do the people who introduced their culinary habits to the islanders also suffer from this same level of obesity? I couldn't see that in the abstract.
  - peterashford 2y ago
    They don't - not to the same degree. Most imports to the southern pacfic islands come from NZ and Australia. Both countries have their own obesity issues, but not to the same rate as in the islands.
  - sshine 2y ago
    No, I don't think so. Orthogonally, the USA has a fentanyl epidemic, and neither China or India (who export fentanyl) nor Mexico (where it flows into the USA) have a fentanyl problem.
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      That's true, but that's not saying that Mexican culture is going to the US and making people die from drugs. If it were Mexican culture to take fentanyl and Mexicans weren't dying from it, we'd probably look outside of fentanyl to explain the US deaths from that hypothetical culture.
    - WanderingLurker 2y ago
      Anecdotally and from my own experience living in a couple of small towns in Mexico. Cartels don’t allow the sale of fentanyl in their hometowns because they know what it does to a population.

Wow Tonga is running away with it. Based on their population apparently just under 30,000 more people got wicked fat in 8 years? What have they been eating on that island

sshine 2y ago

> What have they been eating on that island One theory: - Their original food culture was wiped by colonialism - Now they rely on imported foods without regard for its composition Phrased differently: It is easier for imported foods to beat existing options, because the island culture does not preserve attractive options so well. And it is easy for imported foods to be unhealthy. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-08-29-obesity-pacific-islands-%E2%80%98-colonial-legacy%E2%80%99-settlers-trying-civilise-locals https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-08-29-obesity-pacific-islands... > ... Pacific islanders are more prone to obesity than people in other nations. Now a new study led by the University of Oxford has examined why islanders on Nauru and in the Cook Islands in the Pacific have the highest levels and fastest rates of obesity increase in the world. On both the islands, between 1980 and 2008 the increase in the average body mass index was four times higher than the global average. The paper, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, provides a novel theory for why obesity levels are so high there. It suggests that social changes, introduced when the islands were under colonial rule, have significantly contributed to unhealthy dietary habits.

robertlagrant 2y ago
Do the people who introduced their culinary habits to the islanders also suffer from this same level of obesity? I couldn't see that in the abstract.
- peterashford 2y ago
  They don't - not to the same degree. Most imports to the southern pacfic islands come from NZ and Australia. Both countries have their own obesity issues, but not to the same rate as in the islands.
- sshine 2y ago
  No, I don't think so. Orthogonally, the USA has a fentanyl epidemic, and neither China or India (who export fentanyl) nor Mexico (where it flows into the USA) have a fentanyl problem.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    That's true, but that's not saying that Mexican culture is going to the US and making people die from drugs. If it were Mexican culture to take fentanyl and Mexicans weren't dying from it, we'd probably look outside of fentanyl to explain the US deaths from that hypothetical culture.
  - WanderingLurker 2y ago
    Anecdotally and from my own experience living in a couple of small towns in Mexico. Cartels don’t allow the sale of fentanyl in their hometowns because they know what it does to a population.