In this picture we see a possible norm within our near future. A future of overweight and obsessed individuals. This is the result of our urban diet, a diet which is filled with sweeteners, fats and oils. A diet which is slowly taking us to our grave. This picture was taken in Airapeta Avenue carnival Monday in Trinidad. During my observations i realized that these "love handles" were common among many of the mass men and women on that day. Is this the future image of Trinidad? Has our urbanized lifestyle dictated our diets in such a way that it is breeding a future of super sized individuals.
There is no doubt that as you look around Port of Spain or in most urban areas in Trinidad; one would notice that our waistlines are expanding. There has definitely been a nutrition transition from the more tradition diets which consisted mostly of root crops, cereal and fiber to one high in sugar, fats, animal products and highly processed foods (Rae 1999).
This shift in our diet has been as a result of the shift in socio-economic factors which have resulted due to urbanization. As the improvement in economic statuses of persons increased, so did their disposable income. Thus, persons spend this extra income on westernized type foods which are promoted through globalization, increased communication and marketing strategies. This increased intake of these high calorific foods through artificial sweeteners and edible oils with an accompanying reduction in the intake of traditional fruits, vegetables and crops, is negatively affecting the biological make-up of many urban dwellers in Trinidad. The preference of such foods, in particular fast foods is intensified through our urban lifestyles. These unhealthy foods are the ones that are convenient, cheap and in most cases delicious. One has to ask, should we blames these fast food chains for our unhealthy lifestyles or ourselves? The link below follows to a movie examining the phenomena that is happening today.
Trinidad is suffering with increasing rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension. In fact the FAO stats indicate that Trinidad and Tobago ranks sixth among world countries with having 30% of their adult population being obese (Whadropt-Fergosun 2014). It has also been documented that child obesity figures in Trinidad are of a higher rate than that of the United States (Ramdass 2014).
It is evident that our nutritional transition based on our urban diet is negatively affecting the health or many trini urbanites, even the younger generation. It seems as though if we continue on this path we would be breeding a nation of “rollie pollies.”
Rae, Allan. 1999. “Food Consumption Patterns in Urban Java Households: the discriminatory power of some socioeconomic variables.” The Australian Journal of Agriculture and Resource Economics 43:3, 359-383.
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