According
to the 2001 census, just over one fifth (22%) of the
Australian population is born overseas. Most foreign born
immigrants come from the UK (1,036,245), followed by New
Zealand (355,765); Italy (218,718); Vietnam (154,831); China
(142,780); Greece (116,431) and Germany (108,220). The most
common foreign ancestry reported was English (33.9%), followed
by Irish (10.2%), Italian (4.3%), German (4%), Chinese (3%),
Scottish (2.9%) and Greek (2%).
The
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 8th biennial report
"Australian Health Inequalities" concluded that
death rates for migrants were 10 to 15% lower during the 1990s
than those born in Australia. However, this is against a
backdrop of remarkable improvements in longevity and reduction
in disability in the Australian population as a whole, as
judged by the World Health Organisation (WHO) 'Disability
Aadjusted Life Expectancy' (DALE). Australia is the only
English speaking country in the top 10 on the DALE scale, and
is second to Japan ..... more
A senior analyst at the institute (Michael de Looper) reported
in the AGE (26/7/2002) that "the longer migrants live in
Australia, the more their health advantages disappear and
start to match Australian levels as a whole. One of the costs
of acculturation is the lost health advantages ......previous
research has shown that the healthiness enjoyed by first
generation migrants quickly faded in their children".
Asian-born Australians are the healthiest, followed by people
born in Europe. Asian-born men were 46% less likely to die
from colorectal cancer and 25% less likely to die from
coronary heart disease. Diet and other lifestyle factors have
contributed to the better health of migrants, but the main
reason appears to be due to 'selection effects'. The migration
process itself tends to be highly selective for health, both
explicitly by the health criteria applied by the Australian
Government to people seeking to migrate to Australia and also
because people who are in poor health are less likely to have
the ability and economic resources to migrate.
HEC's Professor Mark Wahlqvist was also interviewed about this
report and was quoted in the AGE (26/7/2002) "that
migration had greatly improved the health of all Australians,
especially through better diet" and that this "had
helped Australia reach second place after Japan on the WHO
scale of DALE.
To read more about this:
http://www.aihw.gov.au/media/2002/mr020627.pdf
http://www.aihw.gov.au/media/2002/mr020726.html
Healthy
Eating Club's Professor Mark Wahlqvist and Dr Antigone
Kouris-Blazos have studied the diet, health and survival
of Greek Australian migrants; publications
are as follows:
Kouris-Blazos
A, Wahlqvist M, Wattanapenpaiboon N. 'Morbidity mortality
paradox' of Greek-born Australians: possible dietary
contributors. Australian Journal Nutrition and Dietetics,
1999; 56 (2): 97-107;
on-line
abstract
Kouris-Blazos A, Wahlqvist ML, Trichopoulou A,
Polychronopoulos E, Trichopoulos D. Health & Nutritional
Status of elderly Greek migrants to Melbourne, Australia. Age
Ageing 1996; 25: 177-189.(on-line
abstract)
Trichopoulou A,
Kouris-Blazos A, Wahlqvist ML, Gnardellis Ch, Lagiou P,
Polychronopoulos E, Vassilakou T, Lipworth L, &
Trichopoulos D. Diet and overall survival in elderly people.
British Medical Journal 1995; 311 (7018): 1457-1460
(on-line
full text article)
Wahlqvist M,
Kouris-Blazos A, Wattanapenpaiboon N. The significance of
eating patterns: an elderly Greek case study. Appetite 1999;
32: 23-32;
on-line
full-text article
Other
resources on the Australian Migrant experience:
Book written by journalist Mr Alfred Kouris on
Greek migrants in Australia (primarily a social history with
reference to dietary changes on migration)
http://www.angelfire.com/ak/kouris
cc
High
fructose processed foods linked to obesity, gout,
hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and fatty liver
There
has been a "cloud" over the health benefits of
fructose added to processed foods over the last few decades.
Food manufacturers have been adding pure fructose to foods in
the quest to lower the glycaemic index (GI) of the food
because fructose does not affect insulin production therefore
is considered to be a low GI sugar (this is contrast to
glucose which does raise insulin levels). The food industry
have also been adding fructose in the form of corn syrup
(popular in the United States) or sucrose (this is half
fructose) to foods, especially low fat/diet foods to improve
flavour. There is emerging evidence that this may be making
the obesity epidemic even worse, starting with damage to our
liver cells, the hepatocytes.
The only organ in your body that can take up fructose is your
liver and this is where the problem begins. In contrast,
glucose can be taken up by every organ in the body, only 20%
of glucose load ends up at your liver - the rest is
metabolised by muscles, brain, kidneys, heart etc. .
Fructose increases uric acid which in turn increases
blood pressure and causes gout (where uric acid crystals
are deposited in joints)
Fructose increases phosphate depletion of the hepatocyte which
ultimately causes an increase in uric acid. Uric acid is an
inhibitor of nitric oxide - nitric oxide is your naturally
occurring blood pressure lowerer.
Fructose increases fat production in the liver
(also
known as denovo lipogenesis) which in turn increases blood
fats like cholesterol and triglycerides (glucose does not do
this) and liver fat (which could result in non-alcoholic fatty
liver disease). In fact fructose is being metabolised via the
same pathway as alcohol and is actually damaging your liver in
the the same way as alcohol. Fructose causes deposition of fat
within the liver so it is actually like alcohol and alcohol is
like a fat. So in contrast to glucose, it can be said that
fructose behaves like a fat.
Fructose increases inflammation which in turn
increases insuln levels in the long term: fructose
initiates an enzyme called Junk one in the liver which
stimulates the inflammation pathway. This in turn stops the
insulin receptor in your liver from working resulting in
higher insulin levels in the body (pancreas responds to this
situation by pumping out more insulin in the hope to get the
insulin working) . Eventually insulin resistance sets in where
your insulin receptors are no longer responding to the
excessive amounts of insulin and thus less glucose gets into
the cells and more remains in the blood (this is when diabetes
is diagnosed). High insulin levels stimulate the conversion of
sugar to fat which means you will be storing more fat in the
liver (which could result in non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease) and more fat in fat cells, especially around the
abdomen and internal organs (resulting in abdominal/visceral
obesity).
Fructose doesn't raise your insulin in the short term because
there's no fructose receptor on your beta cell in your
pancreas which produces insulin but there is a receptor for
glucose (fat also does not increase insulin production).
However, in the long term fructose will raise insulin due to
the effects on inflammation in the liver which in turn can
make you insulin resistant (mentioned above). The World Cancer
Research Fund latest report recommends a reduction in sugar
dense drinks and fruit juices.
http://www.wcrf.org/home/recommendations.lasso
Bottom line:
A low fat diet containing processed
sugar dense foods is really a high fat diet because fructose
(in sugar) behaves like a fat. We were not designed to eat a
lot of refined sugars, we're supposed to be eating our
carbohydrate, particularly our fructose, with high fibre in
unprocessed foods like fruit and vegetables. If you are trying
to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, blood fats or fatty
liver reduce your intake of sugars/fructose in processed foods
that do not contain fibre (like soft drinks, fruit juices,
sweet yoghurts, cakes, biscuits, fructose sweetened protein
drinks etc) even if the label says low GI.
Source:
ABC Health Report - Dr Norman Swan interviews Obesity expert
Dr Robert Lustig Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology,
University of California
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/1969924.htm
Eric G. Neilson
. The Fructose Nation, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
Vol. 86, No. 4, 895-896, October 2007.
Last Updated:
July 2008