The New York Times

October 9, 2007
Vital Signs
Nutrition: An Up Side to Hard Times
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Cuba's economic crisis in the 1990s had a silver lining, scientists are
reporting: a decrease in the rates of obesity, diabetes, coronary heart
disease and stroke.

And no wonder. Average calorie consumption dropped more than a third, to
1,863 calories a day in 2002 from 2,899 in 1989. Cubans also exercised more,
giving up cars for walking and bicycling.

Using national vital statistics and other sources, the researchers gathered
data on energy intake, body weight and physical activity in Cuba from 1980
to 2005. In Cienfuegos, a large city on the southern coast, obesity rates
decreased to less than 7 percent in 1995 from more than 14 percent in 1991.
As more food became available, obesity increased to about 12 percent again
by 2002.

Nationwide, coronary heart disease mortality declined 35 percent from 1997
to 2002. Diabetes mortality was down to less than 10 per 100,000 in 2003
from 19 per 100,000 in 1988. The death rate from all causes declined to 4.7
per thousand in 2002 from 5.9 per thousand in 1982.

"No one is recommending an economic crisis as a health measure," said Dr.
Manuel Franco of the department of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins. "What we
are saying is that changes at the population level designed to reduce
caloric intake and increase physical activity might be best suited to
prevent obesity and its related conditions."

The article was published online in The American Journal of Epidemiology.