Western nations lead the way in the obesity tables, with the United States ranking as number one. The cause of obesity is not fully understood, but increasingly poor quality diets are being implicated. In particular, diets high in refined carbohydrates, particularly sugar or other fructose containing molecules are though to be a contributory factor in obesity. Diets devoid of fibre and micronutrients, with a significant number of calories coming from sugar sweetened soft drinks are also problematic. Such an intake of food results in the development of insulin resistance, and this then causes a number of deleterious of physiological changes culminating in fat accumulation, particularly around the liver. In contrast to Western diets, traditional native diets tends to be protective of obesity. Although most traditional diets are different, they have a common denominator in that they contain whole unprocessed foods, and are generally absent of, or very low in sugar.
The protective effects of traditional diets has made them of interest to nutritional researchers. In particular, researchers are interested in observing the body weight of subjects who move to Western countries but maintain their traditional eating plans. For example, one study1 used a cross-sectional design to observe the association between the body composition and the eating patterns of African children living in Australia. The subjects were classified as having a traditional sub-Saharan diet, a Westernised Australian diet, and integrated diet containing elements of both, or a diet of neither African nor Australian origin. After adjustment for possible confounding variables, children eating a traditional sub-Saharan diet had a significantly lower body mass index that those eating an Australian diet or the combined African and Australian diet. This was despite the fact that children eating the combined diet had significantly higher time engaged in physical activity.
Of the subjects 18.4 % were overweight and 8.6 % were obese. This is concerning as the children were all between 3 and 12 years old. Of the children following the traditional diet, 9.8 % were overweight or obese. However, those children who followed the Australian or the combined Australian and African diets had overweight or obesity rates of 30.3 and 32.0 %, respectively. In addition, the African children eating a traditional diet had significantly lower energy intakes than the other groups. The authors noted that the more Westernised an individual became, the more obesogenic their diet. This supports other studies showing that traditional diets such as the Okinawan and Mediterranean diets do not cause obesity. Research has shown that the longer immigrant children stay in a host country of the West, the heavier they become. The larger body mass index of the children eating Australian food was reflected in their higher level of sedentary activity.
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