The South Pacific is Fat!

I have noticed an abundance of obese people in Polynesia myself, but the rankings they and the Little Islands get among the World's Fattest Countries is still something of a shock: Micronesia and Polynesia took the top 7 positions and even poverty-stricken Kiribati came #10!

The only 2 non-pacific countries in the Top Ten are Kuwait and (surprise, surprise) the USA! :-)

In contrast, only one Melanesian country, Vanuatu made it to the Top 49 list, way beyond the fair-skinned neighbours at #47.
I was missing Fiji from the list with much until I realized that all those skinny Indians must have saved it from similar disgrace.

Maybe it would be time to go back to fishing, gardening and earth-oven cooking a bit more often instead of just opening another huge can of that beloved corned beef? ;-)

I was just pleased as anything to see that we Canadians aren't as fat as those Mongols. That would have been just too embarrassing.

Regards,
Mark

Yes, corned beef and mutton flaps definitely help lead to this result.

And in a "diet" column in the local paper, the writer wrote a nice recipe for cooking diced up breadfruit. But the last sentence gave away the locals' knowledge of nutrition: "When it's all rolled up and then flattened out a bit like a burger, deep fry it for 30 minutes. It will taste yummy!"

And one company that makes corned beef even had the nerve to get a dozen local canoe paddlers to push it in a TV ad as giving them "a lot of energy from protein!" The Public Health Service was so appalled by this that they put together their own TV ad showing how much fat was in each can of corned beef!

This survey is no surprise to me at all. Not just from general observation but from articles and discussions with those involved in diabetes treatment, research and alleviation.

A mate of mine runs an insulin collection/distribution charity based in Melbourne but operating worldwide- IFL website and also another friend, via Rotary , distributes wheelchairs to the unfortunates who have lost legs due to diabetes. Make no mistake diabetes via obesity is a scurge in much of the Pacific due to sedantry lifestyle and poor eating habits (eating from tins rather than fishing etc).

Anyone wanting to help either please contact them or PM me.

I read that Nauru topped the list. All that money from guano did them no good at all.

Raro - re the corned beef. It's something I eat only occasionally, but I swear that the cans I have bought in Rarotonga have double the fat of the cans I have bought here in NZ. I couldn't believe what I had to throw away.

4--Yes, in the US if one gets corned beef, it's medium to lean. Here, I was at a friend's house for dinner. They made a bunch of rice. Then opened a big tin of corned beef, and proceeded to just fork it right out of the can onto the rice on their plates, seceral forkfuls each. So I did the same thing. The first forkful produced a long piece of grizzle, as did the second. The third got a few bits of just beef. The fourth had so much grizzle I decided to just mix that previous forkful with all the rice and leave it at that. That was 15 years ago, and I have not touched corned beef out of a can since then (at least knowingly).

Public Health did another TV ad about 10 yrs ago. They emptied a can of corned beef into a large glass bowl, then nuked it in a microwave oven for five minutes or so.

Then they poured the liquid fat back into the empty tin can. It filled up half the can!

But still most locals eat corned beef out of the can, cold, grizzle fat and all.

There is a bit of a health and exercise kick going on, but that "diet" column above was theoretically part of that, so who knows....

And we haven't even mentioned another popular delicacy yet: deep-fried turkey tails!
Or is that only a favourite in Samoa?
We do eat fatty bacons here in Hungary too, but those tails dripping with fat were still a bit too much for me... yuck.

What also struck me about the corned beef in the Pacific is that it was sold in huge cans of up to 2 kilos each - I guess intended for family feasts. Never seen them sold in that size over here.

Of the Pacific countries I have been to, only PNG produces its own local corned beef - hate to think of what might go into that one!
But most people there just seem to be too poor to be able to eat too much of the stuff, which might explain why they ranked only #145 on the list. Also, many of them still work a lot in the rural areas.
At #115, the Solomons seem pretty healthy, too.

But I was much surprised to see the Marshall Islands are #105 - can anyone explain that???
I used to think they were the most "spoilt" of the Micronesian countries!

An interesting thing is that the island nations of the westernmost Pacific, the Philippines and Indonesia, are towards the very end of the list at #155 & 175 respectively. That's despite them being racially closer to Polynesia and Micronesia than Melanesia, and at least the Filipinos being pretty fond of Western junk food, too.

Man, you guys are making me hungry. I haven't had corned beef (pisoupo) and turkey tails in two years!

For Pago :-)

The other thing that's always puzzled me in Raro is the empty cans of corned beef along the roadside. Do the consumers carry a can opener with them?

9---
Those are usually from the guys who would be working along the road---telephone repair, power lines, water lines, some construction etc. The cut open the can with a knife (even a machete will work), to maybe 75% of the lid, just enough to get the corned beef out. When they are done they just chuck the cans on the side of the road into the bushes.

When the concrete guys were doing our foundations, they tried to hide this crap in the bushes on my property, but I caught them, and then put out a little bin for their gargage, and made them put the crap in that. Too bad all those road-area workers don't just take it all back home when they leave their job sites.

Thanks, Raro. That's been puzzling me for years! As you say, it's a pity they don't take it all back home with them. Just as well there's the annual clean-up!

11---
Well, there's the island-wide "Tutaka" where Public Health inspects all properties, mainly for mozzie prevention, it's actually twice a year.

But here at Muri Beach, and in most villages, the local council also has a crew they hire to cut the grass at the edges of the roads, along ditches and streams, etc., and during that they pick up some litter as well. That happens every three or four weeks.
And most beachfront places, like ours, send someone out every few days to rake and clean our own beach areas.

I think you'll find that the obesity position will have a reasonably direct correlation with economic GDP/capita.

Previous posts described Kiribati as "poverty stricken" - they forget that i-Kiribati are in receipt of remittances from i-Kiribati living and working overseas: mainly as seamen on ships but also from those i-Kiribati who married British colonial officials and moved to the UK post independence. The same is also true of Tuvalu. Families in receipt of these remittances can (and do) spend them on imported health foods such as corn beef, mutton flaps, turkey tails and beer.

Countries such as Vanuatu and PNG feature lower down, mainly because these countries are economically poorer and have a more traditional way of life such as hunter/gathering. The Marshall Islands figure must be incorrect or an anomaly.

Nauru was once one of the richest countries in the world, until its AUD$200 million phosphate mining compensation fund was frittered away. Still, a good number of Nauruans live overseas and send back funds to their families on Nauru.

It's all very sad really, as traditional diets consisting mainly of fish, coconuts, tropical fruits, taro and cassava are pretty healthy. Still, I wouldn't fancy traditional Celtic diet of just potage, shellfish, fish, mushrooms and the occasional deer either.

It has to be at least partly due to the quality of the imported food available.
In Honiara, you cannot get decent cooking oil in most shops, and a favourite is "Ma Ling", ie Chinese Spam, with mostly fat.
The only reason Solomon Islands is lagging behind is that 85% of the population is rural, and can't afford canned food.