The modern diet a threat to health

With the growing popularity of a more modern diet, a large percentage of people in Trinidad and Tobago are becoming more unhealthy. The modern lifestyle is quickly killing us and it’s not just the processed food, but the combination of a sedentary lifestyle coupled with self-medication and heavily processed food. Too many of us spend most of our days indoors glued to computer screens, and ipads and even overdoing screen time on the weekend transitioning from bigger screens to handheld ones.  Some studies suggest Americans and Europeans spend as much as 90 per cent of their time indoors. Although the statistics in Trinidad and Tobago are surely lower, more and more people are struggling with chronically preventable diseases because of their sedentary lifestyle.

There’s been a marked change in the physical and mental health of the people since this new phase of working life, post-pandemic. Trinidad and Tobago has shown limited progress towards achieving the diet-related, non-communicable disease (NCD) targets. The country has shown no progress towards achieving the target for the prevention of obesity, with an estimated 29.6 per cent of adults (aged 18 years and over) women and 12.9 per cent of adult men living with obesity. Trinidad and Tobago’s obesity prevalence is lower than the regional average of 30.7 per cent for women and 22.8 per cent for men.

At the same time, diabetes is estimated to affect 16.2 per cent of adult women and 13.6 per cent of adult men.According to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, chronic non-communicable diseases (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cancers and cardiovascular diseases) are major contributors to adult illness and death locally. In fact, diabetes mellitus and hypertension account for over half of all annual visits to local healthcare facilities. Healthy dietary practices play important roles in the prevention and management of these diseases. 

Rising obesity and diabetes rates have spurred aggressive research into the exact role of the “Western diet”. Earlier studies showed that high levels of sugar and fat can have a detrimental impact on various systems of the body. However, the full scale of the damage is only being understood now.

We are currently in the midst of a period described as a nutrition transition, a major change in what people eat and in the way they eat, reflecting a shift from healthy foods to a diet high in complex carbohydrates. The changes result partially from the globalization and modernization of food and eating, for example, access to new technologies, modern supermarkets, and food marketing. Also, urbanization has separated a large part of the world’s population from the direct production of foods, which has also contributed to changes in eating behaviour. 

The change from traditional to modern eating has also been seen as a net negative by many in the general public and the media. People need to go back to their natural eating lifestyle to combat modern diseases that are, more than likely, preventable. People who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than those of us eating a modern western diet of processed foods. 

The Western Diet is spreading and negatively impacting people on two separate fronts. It is impacting the health of people coming into money that can afford more meat and food with more calories. And, it is impacting the poor who can only afford the cheapest, most highly processed options available.

 Moving away from a modern diet may be more important for our well-being. In fact, studies have shown that moving away from a diet high in saturated fats and sugars has significant benefits. Research conducted by Norwegian scientists found that people who switch from a typical Western Diet to a diet that includes more legumes, nuts, and whole grains, and fewer processed and red meats can add years to their lives. Younger people can add more years to their lives than the elderly, so it’s best to start early. For example, if a 20-year-old man or woman makes dramatic and long-lasting dietary changes, he or she could expect to live an extra 11-13 years. An 80-year-old who makes the same changes could extend life by three years. Happy healthy eating.

Subrina Hall-Azih is Trinidadian educator living in New York