Ethnic Minorities May Fall Prey to Diabetes Because of Changes in Traditional Diets

It is common knowledge that many processed food brands have unhealthy combinations and levels of saturated fats, sugar, and salt. Some serious diseases of the lowest reaches of the digestive tract are related to reduction in fiber content of modern diets.

These observations relate to mainstream communities in the first world, but what about the poor, displaced, and forced to the margins of societies? Ethnic minorities forced to live in environments alien to their ingrained habits may lose much of their hereditary wellness. Diabetes is one of the chronic conditions with alarming incidence amongst ethnic minorities.

Genes must have something to do with the propensity of Aleutians, Polynesians, Asians, and Africans to develop diabetes, but inappropriate changes in diet may also contribute to the problem. Minor cereals, indigenous varieties of staple grains, and the meat of animals in the wild, may hold keys to good health in descendants of people accustomed to living in harmony with nature.

These thoughts have crossed my mind after I accessed the following link earlier today:

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/01/28/100loc_a1elkside001.cfm