"All our people are dyin' ": diet and stress in an urban Aboriginal community

Abstract

This is primarily a study of dietary practices and nutrient intakes in relation to health in an urban Aboriginal community in New South Wales. It examines the assumption that poor diet is one of the major, if not the major, contributing factors in poor Aboriginal health. The data indicate that in the community studied dietary patterns were consistent with those of the wider society. Intakes of nutrients were not always optimal compared with recommended dietary intakes (RDIs) for Australia, but compared to the rest of the Australian population, and different sub-sections within it, they were not as poor as expected. In particular, the high fat, high sugar, largely vitamin deficient diet frequently assumed to be ubiquitous in Aboriginal communities is not supported by this study. Consequently, it is argued that the importance of the role of diet in poor Aboriginal health may have been over-stated. In re-evaluating the current emphasis on diet and other 'lifestyle' factors it is suggested that the scope of the analysis needs to be considerably broadened to include other factors which may be more ambiguous in terms of their effects on health. What seems particularly important is the high level of stress evident in the community studied. This stress seems to be derived from a particular set of historical and contemporary social conditions which, it is argued, need to be more fully considered as part of the totality of environmental factors which impinge on the health of Aborigines in settled Australia.