Tonga and Fiji and obesity

from w
We watched a program on SBS TV this evening entitled Cooking in the Danger Zone Part 4 which was about Tonga and Fiji. It’s a cooking series with a difference, this time looking at obesity and the fattest people on earth – well, not quite. I think the Nauruans beat everyone on that one. It’s a program first shown in the UK. The journalist looked at coconut cream, tinned mutton, taro, a piglet or two, mutton flaps in Tonga, and in Fiji the use of taro, coconut cream, fish, another piglet. A point made was that there are less fish for the local people because of overfishing and the best fish go to Japan and Hong Kong. In Tonga to counterbalance the fat bodies, there’s a gym and they certainly have started to move their bodies! The fit Tongans were the family members still living on the land, eating natural food and working and walking.

07:30 pm COOKING IN THE DANGER ZONE Tonga And Fiji - In this five-part series, food writer Stefan Gates explores some of the most controversial food issues in the world. In tonight's episode Stefan finds some of the fattest people on Earth. In Tonga he discovers an alarmingly large percentage of Tongans are obese - literally eating themselves to death. In Fiji, he tries the local narcotic - cava (spelling?)- and slaughters a piglet for lunch. (From the UK, in English) (Food Series) (Part 4) PG CC WS

A good article from 2002 on the dumping of inappropriate food into the Pacific Islands is found here.
The article starts off as: Killing Me Softly: why is it that whenever I think of the Pacific, the word 'dumping' comes to mind?