Modern life means modern ills for obese Pacific islanders

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

WELLINGTON (AFP) — Glossy photographs in tourist brochures showing lean, fit and muscular Pacific islanders fishing with spears from canoes in azure lagoons and shimmying up coconut palms hide an ugly truth.

Pacific islands are in the midst of a crisis of obesity and its associated dangers of diabetes, strokes and heart disease.

A diet which used to be dominated by fish, root crops, green leaves, coconuts and fruit is now heavily reliant on fatty imported meats, rice, and sugar and fat-laden processed snack foods.

Many islanders are now urbanised and drive to the local shop to buy tins of corned beef, spam, cooking oil and rice instead of tending crops and gathering seafood in the lagoon and surrounding ocean.

"What we have in this country is a...