Researchers have been studying Cuba, which during the years of 1991 to 1995 suffered severe economic problems due to tightening of the US trade embargo and dissolution of the former Soviet Union. The country really suffered as it had no petrol and highly limited food resources, which meant that Cubans had to walk to work, ride the 1.5 million bicycles imported by the government and return to manual farming. The results showed that the population as a whole lost weight, the incidence of diabetes halved and mortality from coronary heart disease fell by around a third. In terms of improving health, the suffering the Cubans experienced seemed to do wonders.
In the UK, where diabetes has seen its levels rise by more than 25 per cent and where over 60 per cent of those people are obese, we could do with a similar diet. Yet our economic collapse isn’t quite like the Cuban one. We would need Mayor Boris Johnson to rid London of cars, buy us each a bike and model himself on the New York mayor by trying to ban sugary drinks.
“We bring developing countries diabetes with our Western food. It’s a sign of growth to have choice — even though if we had fewer choices we would make better ones,” says independent nutritionist Ian Marber.
Cuban cuisine is not really what you can call diet food. Indeed, as the Cuban economy has come back to a level of strength, so has the eating, and researchers found the population has now gained back an average of 9kg and diabetes levels are now up 140 per cent.