Nutrient intake trends among African-Caribbeans in Britain: a migrant population and its second generation

Abstract

Objective: To explore British African-Caribbean (AfC) nutrient intake by migration status (place of birth), diet (traditional Caribbean or more European) and age and relate this ecologically to coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality rates. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Inner-city Manchester, UK. Subjects: Two hundred and fifty-five adults of AfC origin aged 25-79 years, randomly sampled from population registers. Results: Caribbean-born people (mean age 56, and mean time in Britain 30 years) had significantly lower per cent energy from total and saturated fat than younger Britishborn AfC people (mean age 29 years) (31.3% vs. 35%, difference in total fat 3.7%, 95%CI 2-5%; in saturated fat 10.9% vs. 12.6%, difference 1.7%, 95%CI 1-2.5%). The Caribbean-born group also ate more fruit (þ84 g day, 95%CI 36-132 g day) and green vegetables (þ26 g day ). Men following a traditional diet (у 5 days week ) similarly had a lower per cent energy from fat, at 30.4%, than less traditional eaters, at 33.1% (difference 2.7%, 95%CI 0.7-4.8%). African-Caribbean women, at relatively greater CHD risk than AfC men, had higher body mass indices (BMIs) than AfC men. Compared with national data, AfC subjects consumed some 7% and 5% less energy from total fat and saturated fat, respectively, with over 9% more from carbohydrate. However, there was marked convergence towards the national average in the youngest AfC groups aged 25-34 years, whatever their place of birth. Conclusions: Caribbean birthplace has an independent effect on total fat intake and percentage of energy from fat. Together with higher fruit and vegetable intake, these results are consistent with the dietary fat/antioxidant/CHD hypothesis. Keywords African-CaribbeanNutrient intake Coronary risk Migration Age Place of birth Food frequency questionnaire Differing disease rates between migrant, original and local populations have supplied vital clues to aetiology but studies combined with comparative nutritional data are few [1][2][3] . For example, recent reports on CHD in the United States contrasted the lower CHD rates in AfCorigin migrants with the higher rates in AfricanAmericans although nutrient intake data were not available 4 . This pattern has also long been noted between AfC migrants to Britain and the national white European-origin population [5][6][7] . Thus, CHD mortality in Caribbean-born men has remained persistently 50% lower than the high national rates in British-born men, both 20 years ago and in the most recent data for 1988-92 7,8 , while that for AfC women has similarly been some 67-75% of national rates. However, CHD mortality in Jamaica was still less than half that of Caribbean-born people in the UK for these periods 9 again indicating that risk factors for CHD may have been acquired recently.The AfC community in Britain has primarily developed from the young people who migrated from the English-speaking West Indies in the 1950s and 1960s, and from their descendants now born in Britain 10. Similar migration occurred to the United States...

The impact on eating habits of temporary translocation from a Mediterranean to a Northern European environment

“…To the best of our knowledge there are no published studies that have measured the change in diet quality of Greek students leaving family life for student life in Greece, against which we could compare our findings. However, the difficulties reported by Greek students in this study related to the preparation and purchasing of familiar foods are similar to those difficulties encountered by immigrants on migrating to a new country (Pan et al, 1999;Sharma et al, 1999). This suggests that the changes in diet quality reported here are due, at least in part, to the temporary translocation of students from a Mediterranean to a Northern European environment.…”

“…It is well documented that migrants, on immigrating to a new country, often find it difficult to maintain their traditional eating habits, with traditional foods often being difficult to find (Pan et al, 1999) and more expensive than Western equivalents (Sharma et al, 1999). Dietary changes are related to length of exposure to the new environment, ability of immigrants to speak or read the new language and extent of social contact with people of the new culture (Lee et al, 1999;Pan et al, 1999).…”

“…Dietary changes are related to length of exposure to the new environment, ability of immigrants to speak or read the new language and extent of social contact with people of the new culture (Lee et al, 1999;Pan et al, 1999). It has also been observed that younger immigrants tend to change their food habits more readily than older immigrants (Lee et al, 1999;Pan et al, 1999;Sharma et al, 1999).…”

“…Studies highlighting the differing disease rates between migrant, original and local populations have supplied vital clues to aetiology of chronic diet-related diseases (Wenkam & Wolff 1970;Kouris-Blazos et al, 1996;Sharma et al, 1999).…”

“…Most studies have looked at the effect of long-term migration (Wahlqvist et al, 1999) or have compared the dietary patterns and nutritional status of different generations of migrant families (Wenkam & Wolff 1970;Sharma et al, 1999). Few studies have investigated the effect of shortterm migration, or temporary translocation, on eating habits.…”