Nutrition among Indigenous Australians - Case Study Example

NUTRITION AMONG INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS Name Course Institution Introduction As a country, Australia has come a long way in terms of culture, traditions, government and economic development. Being among the rest of the developed countries, the culture and lifestyles of the Australian people has been influences by the immigrants whose presence is highly noticeable in the country. With a population of over twenty two million seven hundred thousand people, only 2.5 percent comprise of the indigenous Australian population. According to the Australian Bureau of statistics (ABS) the indigenous population of Australia is estimated at slightly above five hundred and forty thousand as per the 2011 census. Most of the population is made up of immigrants from European and Asian countries. As such, the culture and dietary components of the indigenous Australians has been affected a great deal. The native Australians were primarily hunters (Viegas, 2008) and gathers leading ordinary lifestyles. Their main diet consisted of game meat, fish, native plants and native fruits. However, over the years this has changes. There has been an introduction to modern foods and diets, and these have both positive and negative health effects. This paper tries to outline the prevalence’s and causes of the dietary intakes that are in contrast to the ordinary indigenous cuisine. It also discusses the current and potential public health implications, analyzes current public health nutrition initiative and proposes policies to address dietary intakes of the indigenous Australian population. Prevalence of the drastic change from the health traditional diet in among the Australian people has been as a result of various factors brought together. These factors revolve around the basic lifestyles of the people and range from economic, academic and cultural. The indigenous Australian people are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. They mainly live in the rural areas of Australia and lead ordinary lifestyles. As such, they are vulnerable to dietary change depending on the current situation in which they are. The causes of the change from the indigenous Australian diet include the following factors. First and foremost, is the influence of the cultural practices and eating habits of the people of the outside world. (Jupp, pp. 796) Initially, the native Australian had a healthy forest based diet which included food from animals that are meat, fat, eggs, blood and offal. They also ate food from plants which were fruits, vegetables and edible seeds. This was not their complete diet. They also fed on edible insects and grubs (Thompson, p. 140). However, from the start of the twentieth century, the British first settlers arrived in Australia and introduced their diets to the native people. The diet was quickly embraced, and many people changed from the normal hunter gatherer diet to a more complex and domesticated one. As more and more immigrants came into Australia, the more their native diet was influence. Vast lands were put into food production and fabulous vineyards planted to produce wine. The southern European people and the Asian people had a lot of influence in this change of culture and dietary component of the indigenous Australian people. Secondly, the lack of adequate education has also led to the change in the indigenous Australian diet. Many of the native Australian people live in the villages and do not have access to quality education. As much as Australia is a developed country, there are still many people who are not as educated as the set standards of the country would demand. As such, many of the native Australians who would indulge in the indigenous diet no longer do that. This is because they follow other cultures and their diets to "keep up with the trends" without knowing they are leading unhealthy lifestyles. The lack of adequate education also limits the native Australians from being able to know which diet is balanced and correct. The third factor leading to the change in the indigenous Australian diet is the changing times and development. Due to the development of Australia as a country, most people are shifting from the normal culture of hunting and gathering. More and more people are getting involved in academic pursuits. These academic pursuits align them to specific jobs and careers thus slowly but effectively eliminating the hunter gatherer way of life. As such more people are moving to towns where they can get an education and practice their careers comfortably. The few people who are still in the villages are also influenced by the people in towns and cities on new ways of life and more healthy dietary elements that do not involve hunting and gathering. The other cause of change from the indigenous Australian diet is the availability of more health and cheaper alternatives. The hunter and gatherer way if life is so time consuming and tedious. As such, the native Australians result to looking for other ways to get health diets without as much strain as involvement in hunting and gathering. The availability of processed food from industries which are more nutritious and healthy at affordable costs makes most of the native Australians abandon their indigenous diets. As a result of the change from the indigenous Australian diet, there have been several public health implications. These implications reflect on Australia as a country and affect it immensely. Compared to the rest of the world, Australia is placed fourth in terms of high life expectancy rates. This is after Iceland, Japan and Hong Kong, (Teo, p. 121).However, the change from the healthy indigenous diet has led to adoption of certain unhealthy cultures among the native Australians. This change of culture is slowly reducing the life expectancy of the population. Cigarette smoking is the number one killer in Australia among the avoidable deaths. Smoking is not a usual cultural part of the indigenous Australian people and as such a lot of death result from it. Over the years, almost all the surveys conducted on the native Australian population have indicated a high prevalence of smoking. This is strictly among the indigenous Australians that is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Cigarette smoking is closely associated with the increased incidence of various types of cancers. These types of cancer are lung, bladder, pancreatic cancers and cervical. Other health effects of smoking are stroke, coronary heart disease, chronic respiratory tract diseases, and now widely spreading pregnancy-related conditions. There are also effects of passive smoking to the people surrounding the smokers. These passive smokers are associated with heart disease, asthma, lower respiratory tract illness these include pneumonia and bronchitis. Cancer is also highly present. Higher rates of sudden infant death syndrome are also being reported day in day out. Again smoking is responsible for low birth weight. As such cigarette smoking has wide and diverse public health effects to the people of Australia where they are active or passive smokers. The bulk of the population of the people of Australia is the old people. With such deaths caused by avoidable circumstances there is a great loss of man power for development. Both the people involved in the unhealthy ways of life and those around them are gravely affected. This raises national concern as more and more resources are being put in place to curb such avoidable diseases and deaths. The basic diet of many indigenous Australians (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) has experienced drastic shift. This is from fiber-rich, low saturated fat diet, high protein, to a diet which is full of saturated fats and refined carbohydrates (Shannon C, 2002). As such more of the native Australians are suffering from a group of conditions. These conditions are collectively referred to as Syndrome X. it is principally an insulin resistance syndrome. The results of syndrome x are type 2 diabetes, renal disease, obesity and cardiovascular disease (Zimmet, p. 175). This is a result of change of diet from the indigenous types because the entire syndromes X conditions are found commonly in native Australians compared to non-Indigenous Australians. There are various steps that have been taken to face this demon of dietary change and its health effects to the indigenous Australia population. They include the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy and Action Plan (NATSINSAP). The Aim of this project was to take a National approach to solve health issues. This was to specifically improve the nutritional health of Indigenous people of Australia. The guiding plan of this project was the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy and Action Plan 2000-2010. This was a result of the national nutrition strategy also known as Eat Well Australia: a national framework for action in public health nutrition, 2000-2010. This Strategy was highly endorsed during the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, which was held in August 2001. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy and Action Plan was developed after the recognition of the fact that poor diet is the chief contributor to the poor health and chronic diseases that challenge the Indigenous Australians. The project provides a clear platform for the government to take action from all its levels and institutions. This is a joint venture where the government is providing nutritional services in conjunction with various partners from the health industry and also the key the nongovernment organizations. The priorities of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy and Action Plan were to improve on food supply in remote and rural communities; increase and finally assure food security and socioeconomic status to the native Australians; provide family-focused promotion on nutrition; tackling nutrition issues in all urban areas and also develop comprehensive national food and nutrition information systems to serve the community. Apart from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy and Action Plan, the government has also gone ahead to improve on infrastructure and availability of social and health amenities to the indigenous people of Australia. This is by ensuring connection to the rest of the world, availability of affordable and accessible health care in their villages. Bring the people of native Australia closer to the rest of the world assures them of the best nutritional services and health care they can get. Therefore, this strategy will help the people of native Australia to know that their indigenous diet was remarkably healthy, and the change should be maintained on the health side. In order to curb any future health crisis among the people of the native Australia from wandering from their original indigenous healthy diet, proper education should be employed as a long lasting solution. With people education and literacy levels among them, the people of Native Australia will be able to know the nutritional benefits and value of the types of food and diets they are taking. Being armed with this king of knowledge, they will be able to lead healthy lifestyles though away from their original hunter and gatherer life style. Improved education will also lead to reduced death due to avoidable diseases that are caused by ignorance on dietary information. The other proposal is to avail information of the proper diets and ways of life to the indigenous people of Australia. This can be done through seminars, workshops and inclusion of diet and health education in the school curriculum. With this information available to the people proper diets will be taken and a better and healthier country will arise. Knowledge is power and the only way to give the native Australians this power is through giving them the right information to be able to face the challenges brought about by dietary change and also effectively handle the diseases and conditions that come along with improper diets. In conclusion, the indigenous Australian diet was balanced and healthy for its people. However, the influence by immigrant and other foreign nationals especially after the First World War has led to both cultural and dietary change. The inaccessibility of information, education and infrastructure has led to improper diets among the native Australians, and this has had diverse and severe consequences. Therefore, the government and other stake holders have put in a lot of effort to curb these effects. The above proposals and actions that have already been taken go a long way in solving these dietary and nutritional issues. References James Jump (2001) 'The making of the Anglo Australian’ the Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Viegas, Jennifer 2008). Early Aussis Tattoos Match Rock Art. Discovery News. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2008). Australian Food and Drink. Turner, Margaret-Mary, (1994). Arrernte Foods, Foods from Central Australia, IAD Press, Alice Springs. Thomson, Donald and Peterson, Nicolas, (2003). Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land, Miegunyah Press. National Health and Medical Research Council (2000) Nutrition in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: an information paper. Canberra: National Health and Medical Research Council Zimmet P, Alberti K, Shaw JE (2005) Mainstreaming the metabolic syndrome: a definitive definition. Medical Journal of Australia. Shannon C (2002) Acculturation: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Canberra: Strategic Inter-Governmental Nutrition Alliance of the National Public Health Partnership Council of Australian Governments (2008) Council of Australian Governments’ meeting, 26 March 2008: Indigenous reform. Canberra: Rudd KM (2008) Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. Paper presented at the House of Representatives. 13 February 2008, Parliament House, Canberra Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (2008) Close the gap: Indigenous health equality summit, statement of intent. Canberra: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2012). 2011 Census Quick Stats. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,(2008). 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