More on overweight islanders

I’m glad to see that my Explainer on why the world’s fattest countries are predominantly islands, most of them in the Pacific, has provoked some interesting discussion online. Tyler Cowen isn’t quite satisfied with the explanation and provides some alternate theories: 

Could it be something about Polynesians?  After all, there are some hefty Maori in New Zealand and that is not a small island, especially not measured in economic terms.  Mexico (not Polynesian, of course) also has a growing obesity problem and that cannot be attributed to the island factor.  The same is true of the Persian Gulf states and there Keating suggests very rapid modernization as a culprit.[…]

Don’t residents of (some) small islands have weaker prospects of migrating to large cities and might that affect their dietary decisions?  I think of rural isolation as a factor behind obesity, though Keating does not mention that.  Being heavy is also one way of identifying with the local rather than the global culture, and islanders may be faced with stronger pressures to reaffirm their identities.  I would like to see a comparison between Samoans who move to New Zealand and those who stay put.

The rural isolation theory is compelling; some previous research among Micronesians has shown that islanders in more urbanized areas have higher rates of obesity and diabetes than those in isolated rural areas. I would also be interested to see how obesity rates changed for relocated Pacific Islanders. 

One of Andrew Sullivan/Chris Bodenner’s readers provides some troubling information on native Hawaiians, who have very high obesity rates despite living in one of the thinnest states in America:

The results of a recent study showed that obesity is more common among Native Hawaiians than in other groups in Hawaii; 18 percent of the people living in Hawaii were reported to be overweight (20 percent or more over their ideal body weight), while 42 percent of Native Hawaiians were overweight. The results of a study performed between 1982 and 1987 showed that Native Hawaiians have the highest mortality of any ethnic group living in the US. Native Hawaiians have death rates from heart disease, diabetes, and cancer that are 44 percent greater, 22 percent greater, and 39 percent greater, respectively, than the entire US population.

Again, I think the issue may be Pacific body types and cultural norms meeting American food and lifestyles. The U.S. Army’s Michael Curtis describes an interesting study in an article for the Journal of Development and Social Transformation:

In a study conducted by Shintani, Hughes, Beckham and Kanawaliwali O’Connor (1991) Native Hawaiians were fed a diet exclusively made up of foods available in Hawaii before Western contact. Such a diet was determined to be both low in fat and calories, compared with the Western diet most Hawaiians consume. The participants were encouraged to eat as much as they liked and unlimited quantities were made available. Weight loss was dramatic. In just three weeks, the average weight loss was 3.5 pounds or 6.4% of total weight (Shintani  et al., 1991).

In any event, how globalization is reshaping bodies along with cultures around the world is clearly a topic that welcomes further discussion.