Natural Dispositions
A new study has been released pointing out the prevalence of obesity among people aged 19 to 50 from within Canada's aboriginal communities. Women in particular were shown to be prone to overweight, with two-thirds of the women in the study being overweight, a higher rate than among the non-aboriginal population.
Data from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey was used as a template, then compared with aboriginals living off-reserve with their non-aboriginal counterparts living in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. The stark differences were attributed to poor eating habits among young aboriginal women.
Among non-aboriginal women, 18 percent were found to be overweight, contrasting with the 41 percent deemed so among the aboriginal population. Researchers reached their conclusion after adjusting for factors such as education levels, household incomes - leaving aboriginal heritage to emerge as the outstanding factor in overweight and obesity levels.
Simply put, aboriginal women consumed greater amounts of calories than non-aboriginal women. Additionally, many of those roughly 359-additional calories were derived from sources other than fruits, vegetables - and what are considered to be other healthy options.
Leaving one to wonder about genealogical insight, and natural predispositions. After all, research has amply demonstrated that in North Dakota some Indian tribes are predisposed to Type I, II and gestational diabetes. Natural adaptation to seasonal deprivation of food sources resulted in weight gain.
While nature's kindly guidance in adaptation assisted native peoples through these physiological survival tactics, those who had so evolved have been unable to turn off the survival tap. Unneeded during a newer era when plentiful food is available all year 'round, in an entirely different mode of modern living.
Simple enough: when food was plentiful in summer-growth seasons and hunting and gathering spelled forage success the tribes ate well, and stored additional body fat to tide them over the long, difficult winters of less access to plentiful food; energy was provided from the storage of body fat to enable them to survive.
Social anthropologists might make the same connection with aboriginal women whose aeons-long occupation of the land in a hunting-gathering and ambulatory society which travelled seasonally to take advantage of food availability would adapt in the very same way exemplifying the success then of nature's survival technique.
For the same reason, it might make good sense that aboriginal women in particular would store more body fat than men, because it was they who gave birth to and suckled the young.
Just a thought, here and there.
Data from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey was used as a template, then compared with aboriginals living off-reserve with their non-aboriginal counterparts living in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. The stark differences were attributed to poor eating habits among young aboriginal women.
Among non-aboriginal women, 18 percent were found to be overweight, contrasting with the 41 percent deemed so among the aboriginal population. Researchers reached their conclusion after adjusting for factors such as education levels, household incomes - leaving aboriginal heritage to emerge as the outstanding factor in overweight and obesity levels.
Simply put, aboriginal women consumed greater amounts of calories than non-aboriginal women. Additionally, many of those roughly 359-additional calories were derived from sources other than fruits, vegetables - and what are considered to be other healthy options.
Leaving one to wonder about genealogical insight, and natural predispositions. After all, research has amply demonstrated that in North Dakota some Indian tribes are predisposed to Type I, II and gestational diabetes. Natural adaptation to seasonal deprivation of food sources resulted in weight gain.
While nature's kindly guidance in adaptation assisted native peoples through these physiological survival tactics, those who had so evolved have been unable to turn off the survival tap. Unneeded during a newer era when plentiful food is available all year 'round, in an entirely different mode of modern living.
Simple enough: when food was plentiful in summer-growth seasons and hunting and gathering spelled forage success the tribes ate well, and stored additional body fat to tide them over the long, difficult winters of less access to plentiful food; energy was provided from the storage of body fat to enable them to survive.
Social anthropologists might make the same connection with aboriginal women whose aeons-long occupation of the land in a hunting-gathering and ambulatory society which travelled seasonally to take advantage of food availability would adapt in the very same way exemplifying the success then of nature's survival technique.
For the same reason, it might make good sense that aboriginal women in particular would store more body fat than men, because it was they who gave birth to and suckled the young.
Just a thought, here and there.
Labels: Environment, Nature, Society
posted by Pieface | 5:18 PM
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