56.
Idyllic Nauru
A Chubby Heaven
Imagine a Pacific Island that has all the elements of paradise, except fruits and vegetables. Tiny Nauru in the South Pacific
is the last place a vegetarian would want to find him or herself. Since the American meat industry turned the island into a haven of canned meats like Spam and Corned Beef just a couple of decades back, the region has acquired the world’s highest obesity rates, along with associated chronic diseases.
According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pacific island nations occupy the top seven places in the global obesity rankings. Diet is the main reason: people who once subsisted on root vegetables, coconuts and fish, now eat imported processed foods that are high in sugar and fat.
The statistics are alarming. In Nauru 97 per cent of men and 93 per cent of women are overweight or obese. Preventable conditions such as heart disease and cancer are responsible for three-quarters of deaths in this apparently carefree corner of the planet.
In the past, only chiefs achieved a large girth; nowadays, with higher incomes and Western diets, it has become far more common to be fat. At the Pacific Food Summit in Vanuatu this year, Temo Waqanivalu, a senior WHO official, bemoaned the decline of traditional foods. “They are unable to compete with the glamour and flashiness of imported food.”
is the last place a vegetarian would want to find him or herself. Since the American meat industry turned the island into a haven of canned meats like Spam and Corned Beef just a couple of decades back, the region has acquired the world’s highest obesity rates, along with associated chronic diseases.
According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pacific island nations occupy the top seven places in the global obesity rankings. Diet is the main reason: people who once subsisted on root vegetables, coconuts and fish, now eat imported processed foods that are high in sugar and fat.
The statistics are alarming. In Nauru 97 per cent of men and 93 per cent of women are overweight or obese. Preventable conditions such as heart disease and cancer are responsible for three-quarters of deaths in this apparently carefree corner of the planet.
In the past, only chiefs achieved a large girth; nowadays, with higher incomes and Western diets, it has become far more common to be fat. At the Pacific Food Summit in Vanuatu this year, Temo Waqanivalu, a senior WHO official, bemoaned the decline of traditional foods. “They are unable to compete with the glamour and flashiness of imported food.”
In Nauru, where 45 per cent of those aged 55-64 have diabetes, health authorities are trying to address the problem. Every Wednesday, locals are encouraged to walk around the three-mile airport perimeter. There are also regular exercise classes and sporting activities.
But it is proving difficult to wean people off processed foods such as tinned beef and mutton, which represent, to those who can afford them, a Western lifestyle. In Nauru, a popular snack is a whole fried chicken, washed down with a bucket-sized beaker of Coke.
The Pacific, of course, is not the only place where weight and preventable diseases are a big issue. Number eight in the WHO’s league table is the United States, where more than 78 per cent of people are overweight or obese. In Britain, the figure is just over 61 per cent.
The island has the appearance of a health timebomb. Chen Ken, the WHO representative for the South Pacific, says: “We’re now seeing extreme diabetes rates, and people ill and dying from diseases that were once uncommon in the Pacific.”
(Source: The Independent, Sunday 26 December 2010)
But it is proving difficult to wean people off processed foods such as tinned beef and mutton, which represent, to those who can afford them, a Western lifestyle. In Nauru, a popular snack is a whole fried chicken, washed down with a bucket-sized beaker of Coke.
The Pacific, of course, is not the only place where weight and preventable diseases are a big issue. Number eight in the WHO’s league table is the United States, where more than 78 per cent of people are overweight or obese. In Britain, the figure is just over 61 per cent.
The island has the appearance of a health timebomb. Chen Ken, the WHO representative for the South Pacific, says: “We’re now seeing extreme diabetes rates, and people ill and dying from diseases that were once uncommon in the Pacific.”
(Source: The Independent, Sunday 26 December 2010)
They are now killing animal, but animal lives on this grass and grains. When there will be no grass, no grains, where they will get animal? They’ll kill their own children and eat. That time is coming. Nature’s law is that you grow your own food. But they are not interested in growing food. They are interested in manufacturing bolts and nuts.
-Srila Prabhupada (Morning Walk — June 22, 1974, Germany)