Feb 12 2008
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam
The Telegraph is reporting the latest dire health warning. The canned meat product Spam causes fat Pacific Islanders.
It was lampooned by Monty Python and spurned by British shoppers, but Spam is fuelling a "raging epidemic" of diabetes, strokes and heart disease among the previously lithe inhabitants of the South Pacific.
Another of Britain's colonial culinary legacies - corned beef - is also being blamed for a rise in obesity-related illnesses in countries once known for muscled warriors and slim-hipped maidens.
Countries across the region - many of them former British territories, from Tonga to Tuvalu - are struggling to deal with a health crisis caused by poor diet and not enough exercise.
Where once islanders ate fish, vegetables and coconuts, burning off excess calories by casting nets from canoes and farming small plots of land, now they eat tinned, processed food and drive to the nearest shop.
Once confined to the South Pacific's somnolent capitals, the problem of obesity has now spread to outlying islands.
"Even if you go into a store in a remote village you'll find shelves of Spam and corned beef," said Dr Jan Pryor, the director of research at the Fiji School of Medicine.
"In the past it was unusual for anyone to have a stroke under 50, now people are having strokes in their twenties and thirties. You see it every day."
Buried in the alarmism is what is probably the root cause of the problem:
"When I was a child, there was less imported food, we would eat local food, which was high carbohydrate, low sugar and high fibre," said Dr Malokai Ake, the chief medical officer for public health in Tonga.
"We would walk or ride on a horse to work in the plantations and spend a lot of time fishing, swimming or diving.
"The amount of calories people have every day now, we used to only have on feast days."
Researchers have suggested Pacific Islanders have a genetic disposition to obesity. They say their metabolism has learned to cope over thousands of years with times of plenty and periods of famine by quickly storing surplus calories as body fat.
In other words, a genetic predisposition and a rapid change in lifestyle from an active one to a sedentary one. A couple of island nations have responded by banning some types of imported foods like sheep belly cuts called "mutton flaps" because they are so high in fat. Spam isn't banned. Yet.
They're going to have to update the classics. No more vikings.
10 Responses to “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam”
Spam was invented in Austin, Minnesota, and Minnesota is the home of the Vikings footbabll team. Coincidence? I think not.
Is there any way to induce Liberals to eat more SPAM? After all, it was invented in socialist American, the Soviets loved it in WWII.
I think you are spot on, on the reason for obesity, Gaius. It is doubtful if banning certain foods will cure obesity. People will make up the caloric intake with another food. Banning food products will not change lifestyles. Years ago, I was eating at a farmer’s house and his wife was complaining about her weight. “If you want to lose weight, then work harder and eat less.” replied her husband. If looks could kill, everyone at the table would have been dead. Still good advice.
Please read Gary Taubes’ book “Good Calories, Bad Calories”. Eating fat does NOT make you fat, eating carbohydrates does, especially processed carbs. Don’t forget the old saying ‘work up an appetite”. People who work, or work out, hard, eat more than those who don’t. You can go to most gyms and see people who go there regularly; many of these people are not fit, they are fat.
There are tons (as it were) of websites where low-carbers document their easy and successful weight loss on various low carb programs. Dr Eades has one (called Protein Power), as does Jimmy Moore (living la vida low carb). They both refer to Phil Novak, who recently lost 200 pounds. CNN had an article about Novak – they misrepresented his weight loss as being due to exercise (which he did), but they do not even mention his low carb eating (which was responsible for his weight loss). You can hear what Novak says about CNN at Moore’s web site; not surprisingly, CNN got it wrong (the good ol’ MSM).
Gaius, when I tried the you tube link, it says that the clip had been removed because of a copyright problem by the BBC.
We went to Maui on vacation last summer. The local McDonald’s had spam with their breakfast platter rather than sausage. My daughters sat there in disgust as I had a plate. Yummy!
It was working when I linked it. How odd.
The link just worked for me, too.
Hawaii has history with Spam:
“Hawaiians consume nearly 6 million cans a year, or almost six cans for every man, woman, and child. Some call the gelatinous pink pork “Hawaii’s soul food.”
Spam became popular in Hawaii during World War II. Fresh meat was scarce, so civilians loaded up on the brand-name C ration well known to GIs. Needing no refrigeration, the proletarian pork product soon became one of three items islanders stock up on (along with toilet paper and rice) during threats of hurricanes, tsunamis, or dockworkers’ strikes.”
I remember a huge billboard when I traveled down to North Carolina.
“Put Down Your Fork If You Want To Be Healthy”, it said.
Gaius, any good liberal knows that free choice invariably leads to bad effects. To establish Heaven on Earth, therefore, just put these decisions in the hands of the enlightened ones, who will carry that sad burden for the rest of us.