The health and nutritional status of primitive populations†

Abstract

Published and unpublished research on the diet, health and nutritional status of groups living in their traditional manner and becoming acculturated were studied to assess the influence of diet on disease patterns, such as ischemic heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer. The populations available for study included Australian Aborigines, Kalahari Bushmen (or San) and selected groups in Papua and New Guinea, Alaskan and Canadian Eskimos and Andean Indians. As the aboriginal population became acculturated, the number of food materials used was reduced. Simplification of the diet (and absence of nutritional knowledge) reduced the availability of amino acids and minerals. In all of the populations studied not only has there been survival but also there have been increases in population size. Primitive populations are able to collect, from hostile and barren environments, sufficient food and shelter to support life. Most individuals, after the first few years of life, are apparently strong and active, women can produce young and nurse them with extraordinary efficiency. Obesity, hypertension and ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus are apparently absent. The extent of longevity, however, is unknown because chronological ages have so far not been determined. Growth rates can be extremely high but there are wide variations in growth achievements. Some of these variations are dietary in origins but adaptation to small size has its advantages in certain situations. By these parameters, standards of health are good. However, they have been achieved at a cost in the form of high child mortality rates.