Growth and nutrition in Papua New Guinea

The Conquest of High Mortality and Hunger in Europe and America: Timing and Mechanisms

“…During the last few years, however, a considerable body of evidence has accumulated suggesting that height at maturity is also an important predictor of the probability of dying and of developing chronic diseases at middle and late ages (Marmot, Shipley, and Rose 1984;Waaler 1984;Fogel et al 1986). Body mass indexes have similar predictive properties (Heywood 1983;Waaler 1984;Martorell 1985).…”

Health and nutrition in the Pacific islands: Development or underdevelopment?

“…The national nutrition survey in Fiji indicated that 1.6% of under five-year olds were severely malnourished (below 60% weight-for-age) and over 20% were at risk (below 80% weight-for-age) Johnson et al 1982), and studies in rural highland Papua New Guinea indicate that, in some areas, over half of under five-year olds were under 80% weight-for-age (Heywood et al 1982). In rural areas of Papua New Guinea, the energy shortfall in pre-school age diets seems to be related to the bulkiness of the normal rootcrop diet, which renders it deficient in energy (Jeffries 1979).…”

“…There is increasing evidence that energy deficiency (insufficient food calories), and not protein deficiency, may be the limiting factor in nutritional improvement in some rural and urban areas of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Micronesia (Heywood 1981;Heywood et al 1982;Shaw 1982;Dye 1979;Fitzroy 1981;Kow 1982;Coyne 1984;Jeffries 1979;Rody 1982Rody , 1983). …”

“…Protein deficiency is possibly a problem in some rural areas, especially in the interior areas of larger islands, such as Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, whereas urban areas often have better access to fish and imported protein sources, such as eggs, dairy products, and frozen and tinned fish and meat (Heywood 1981;Heywood et al 1982;Shaw 1982;Jeffries 1979;Dye 1979). Some studies have suggested, however, that even in places like highland Papua New Guinea, where 50 to 80% of the dietary protein comes from sweet potato and other plant products, people seem to have adapted to such diets over times, and in fact have none of the "western diseases associated with animal-protein-rich diets" (Durnin 1970;Jeffries 1979).…”

Mehtods and Problems of Food Consumption Surveys in Papua New Guinea Populations.

“…Their results apparently contradicted the common sense of clinical examinations; however, information about protein-energy malnu tritionin such societies had not been accumulated (Harris, 1982). Since then, the puzzles attendant on the nutritional status of Papua New Guineans have been investigated in a number of populations, although many points of debate still remain (e.g., Hipsley and Kirk, 1965;Oomen, 1971;Norgan et al, 1974;Ferro-Luzzi et al, 1975;Sinnet, 1977;Heywood and Nakikus, 1982).…”