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What island do you live on?

• Island 1: people eat the same way they have eaten for decades – fresh produce they grow or catch themselves – mainly fish, vegetables and coconuts. About 60% of their calories come from fat. There is very little carbohydrate, just a small amount of rice.
• Island 2: people eat soft drinks, white rice, flour, sugar, tinned fish, coconut and instant noodles. 33% of their calories come from fat. The proportions of energy derived from macronutrients complies with the WHO recommendations (WHO-left side, Island 2-right side):

What island do you live on, the one where you eat real food, or the one that relies on processed carbohydrates? Do you get your food from cans/boxes, ready to cook/eat, or do you eat food that goes bad quickly when taken out of the fridge?

We have more info…

On Island 2 30% of the people have diabetes. The hospital amputates up to 20 limbs a week. It is the 10th country with more overweight people in the world: 74% of adults (aged 15 and over) are overweight. On the other side, inhabitants of Island 1 are pretty healthy, although they also get diabetes if they are exposed to the industrial food diet. Prevalence of diabetes is 20 times smaller than in Island 2 (see).

Those islands exist in the Pacific. The first island is called Aneityum (a small island in Southern Vanuatu). Island 2 is Tarawa (main island in the Republic of Kiribati).

«If you ever wanted evidence that processed carbohydrates damage humans, you should go to Kiribati and have a look for yourself». Grant Schofield

On Kiribati they eat lots of grains and sugar and virtually no animal fats.

In the table bellow you can see how what they eat on Kiribati has changed from year 1965 to 2000. If you believe obesity is caused by eating too much, you will notice that they went from 2137 Calories to 2901 in those 35 years. That is NOT what I see in the table.

Final note

«Refined carbohydrates might also contribute to increased obesity risk. Packaged ‘‘2-min’’ noodles are popular in Vanuatu and were associated with increased risk of obesity […]. Nutrition education is not wide-spread in Vanuatu, so it is not commonly known how energy-dense and nutrient-poor these products are.» (see)

I don’t remember health authorities ever saying how energy-dense and nutrient-poor pasta is. As a matter of fact, they tell us to base our diet on grains. Isn’t nutrition education wide-spread among our health authorities?

Reading further:

• Paradise lost, paradise found. A tale of health in the South and North Pacific
• High fat, low carb ketogenic diets benefit Pacific countries, says researcher
• The Diet and Lifestyle of the People of Vanuatu: Paleo in Paradise
• Coconut and Starchy Vegetable Consumption in the Pacific Islands
• Fighting fat with fat