'One of its first cover stories, published more than 20 years ago, was Diet of Death. It dwelt on the damage that Pacific Islanders were doing to themselves by poor diet...'


ISLANDS BUSINESS has more than once lamented the decline of the health of an ever-larger proportion of the now eight million inhabitants of the Pacific Islands.

One of its first cover stories, published more than 20 years ago, was 'Diet of Death'. It dwelt on the damage that Pacific Islanders were doing to themselves by poor diet.

They were forsaking nutritious traditional food, mainly local vegetables and fruit, for imported sugary junk. Obesity, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes rates were climbing alarmingly.

Has anything changed, despite scores of health conferences, strategies, campaigns and workshops held since then?

With just a few updates here and there, 'Diet of Death' could be reproduced in next month's ISLANDS BUSINESS as still being a valid commentary on the region's present state of health.

The greatest advance since the story first appeared is perhaps Tonga's decision to ban the importation of killer lamb flaps unblushingly dumped on it by New Zealand.

The Pacific's health workers are making headway in some directions. Fewer women are dying in becoming mothers; more children are surviving birth and the first five years of life. A few old enemy diseases have been beaten down to insignificance, although some, like tuberculosis, are trying for a comeback.

The trouble with improving survival rates is that more people are surviving to be killed off by junk food diets, not to mention newcomers like HIV/AIDS, and not forgetting such potential threats as Asian chicken flu. They are also surviving to be killed off in greater numbers by being hit by cars or killing themselves by their own sheer bad driving.

Yet other health spectres are rising. Some are already well risen.

In common with the rest of the world, Pacific Islanders are becoming more sedentary, although of course in some respects haven't they always been?

Sitting around on mats for hours of chats and gossip, has always been a feature of the region's daily life. And why not, what with the pot being kept full by fruit falling from trees, vegetables sprouting from the ground and fish jumping into it from the lagoon.

They are becoming more sedentary by being incessant bus and taxi travellers. The outboard motor has made the quite physically demanding art of sailing canoes redundant.

Why should the owners of mobile phones need to walk a hundred yards for a chat? And then there's that ultimate impediment to social communication and mobility; the household television set.

Yes, Pacific Islanders, apart from small cadres of rugby and perhaps a few golf players are doomed to an early death brought upon them by lousy diet, sheer inactivity, and, of course, booze, cigarettes and the rude impact inflicted by motor vehicles.

Diabetes, obesity, heart attacks and strokes can be averted by physical activity. We're talking about exercise of the type just enough to make one puff and sweat without causing a heart attack or stroke.

The ever hopeful health section of the Pacific Community, which as the South Pacific Commission has been fighting the Diet of Death since it began to impact horribly on the region's physiques, has just conducted a workshop at which health workers were urged to go back home and urge their people to engage in physical activity. It has to do with getting back to farming, cleaning and walking.

During the workshop some participants were persuaded to engage in a physical activity group and benefitted by a reportedly “steady and impressive weight loss.”

So hope remains for us in the islands, that's if we survive AIDS and chicken flu.

But somehow we don't think there's really that much hope until television sets are dumped in the deepest part of the lagoon, to never be replaced.