ABSTRACT
Due to the time lag built into the process of natural selection, human metabolism is still conditioned by the physical and cultural environment of the last several millennia (Crews and James, 1991; Eaton, Konner and Shostak, 1988; McGarvey et al., 1989). Recent changes in our cultural environment have far out-paced the ability of selection to optimise our gene pool. As populations have gone through the transition from subsistence production to wage labor in a cash economy, increases in body size and mass have frequency been found (Damon, 1974; Walker, 1964; Hiernaux, 1972; Cassel, 1975; Hornabrook, Serjeantson and Stanhope, 1977). The more rapid the transition, the more likely it is that metabolic maladjustments will occur. Some Polynesian populations have experienced the transition primarily since World War II, and many of these populations exhibit extremely high body weights and rates of obesity and overweight (Bindon and Baker, 1985; Hunter, 1962; Prior, 1971; Prior et al., 1974; Pawson and Janes, 1981; Zimmet and Björntorp, 1979). Today Polynesians are living lifestyles all along the continuum from traditional farming and fishing to urban industrial wage-earning. By examining groups at different points along this continuum, tentative inferences about the process of biological adjustment to modernization can be drawn. This paper presents the results of several studies of obesity and overweight among Samoans living in various settings. The pattern of the Samoan response to modernization is then compared to those of other Polynesian populations. Diet and activity are considered as causes of obesity in these groups. Finally, I will propose a model to explain the patterns of obesity found in Polynesian populations.
