The rocky road from roots to rice: a review of the changing food and nutrition situation in Papua New Guinea.

Although it is not happening uniformly within the country, the adoption of a modern lifestyle by Papua New Guineans is affecting their food habits and choices. More and more people consume rice, tinned fish and tinned meat. In towns and in villages with easy access to urban centres, these food items comprise an ever increasing part of the diet. These dietary changes are leading to increases in the prevalence of chronic lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, hypertension and coronary heart disease. Although average calorie availability is similar in urban and rural sectors, at around 2600 kilocalories per person per day, the nutritional outcomes are different. This is mainly due to the higher energy density of the modern urban diet with a greater intake of fat and protein. The traditional diet is low in protein with rather high energy content from starchy root crops. Studies have shown that urban children tend to be taller and heavier than their rural counterparts and that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher among adults in urban than in rural areas. Finally, across all income groups and geographical regions, more women than men are chronically undernourished.