As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food

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(Cheryl Meyers) #1

NY Times news story on Vanuatu plan to ban junk food and return to old food ways.

(Jamie Hayes) #2

Through forced selection the gene pool is genetically selected by survival of the fattest.

Many years ago I read about The Essex being the whaling ship upon which the Moby Dick story and subsequent film In The Heart of The Sea was based.

The author describes their journey back from tragedy across 5,000 miles of the Pacific, during which most starved (and were probably eaten). In reverse, the polynesian islands including NZ were probably populated only by those who had high enough body mass (at the start) to survive the journey from South America.

This explains why the gene pool is very efficient at storying and preserving fat. I’d guess that the vast majority of the population is insulin resistant, and grow up on a high starch, high fruit diet. Plus you’ve got the multi-generational obesity effect, where babies are born insulin resistant, especially if their epigenetic switch is triggered by their local diet.

We know the only thing that may work for them. Definitely, sugared soft, fruit and milk drinks would be toxic to them.

(Dustin Cade) #3

Banning things won’t make the problem go away, only education of what makes us fat and why we should choose not to overindulge in junk food is a better option…

(Crow T. Robot) #4

This is a theory that has not really stood up to scientific scrutiny. Certainly, we have mechanisms that are designed for survival when food is scarce, and that includes storage of energy, but I don’t think there’s any scientific basis for the implication that that includes obesity. For example, the south pacific islanders are somewhat famous for being on the big side, but if you look at old photos of them prior to the introduction of sugar and junk foods they are muscular but lean.

I think Gary Taubes would suggest (and I would agree) that if they are obese today, it’s not their genetics that do it, but the Western diet.