Rethinking food systems for a healthier future .
The Samoans can reverse the harmful results of their food choices.
"It doesn't have to be that way."
Samoans are simple, happy people that are content with their surroundings. Their land and their ocean.
With close to 200,000 people, every family has access to land. 97% of these families grow a variety of vegetables, crops. They raise livestock, of cattle, pigs and chickens, on a subsistence or commercial basis.
For the Samoans, food is culture, food is family, food is, land and the ocean, food is everything. They strongly believe that there is an abundance of food and there is no extreme starvation.
But there is a threatening reality behind the happy lives of the Samoan people. Non -Communicable diseases are high and increasing.
- overweight at 84.7%,
- obesity at 63.1%,
- diabetes at 24.8% and
- hypertension at 24.5%.
Poor nutrition is one glaring instigator associated with NCDs. The findings of the 2018 Samoa Household Income and Expenditure Survey (2018 HIES) shows that less than 1 person out of 20 is undernourished, and 1 person in 4 does not have access to safe and nutritious food. The nutrition problem with the Samoans is notable in several health assessments.
NCDs is a result of how the traditional dietary patterns have changed dramatically from natural cultivated, nutritious low-fat foods to convenient oily, fatty, sugary or salted processed food. The problem is high and it’s time to act.
Nutrition indeed is central in the food systems. Nutrition indeed is one solution to reverse the NCD’s.
People need to understand the value of nutrition. People need to produce for themselves food that is high in nutrition.
Changing people starts with families and village communities.
It is our choice to make.
Written by
UN entities involved in this initiative
Goals we are supporting through this initiative
