Indigenous health problems

Hungry. What is a person’s “normal” reaction to that? You’re probably thinking something along the lines of a kitchen, grabbing food to cook, and later eating the finished meals. That’s the ideal and most ‘normal’ thought process for the majority of the world as of this generation.

Unbeknownst to many there are actually still a minority of people out there going through a more independent system to place food on their tables. Oftentimes we refer to them as isolated indigenous tribes. These tribes would hunt for their food using handmade weapons, process it so it’s edible and finally cook it before eating. Among these groups that still remain, many face a grave reality as they are forced into modernization. And yes I am saying STILL because the majority of this cruel act happened 10 years ago and YET some are still being forced.

When I say modernization I mean that the tribes are either being forced by government or voluntarily choose to switch from hunting for fresh food to packaged goods, making their own eco-friendly clothing to buying factory clothing, switching their language to a more universal language, hand made weapons turn factory made knives and more. Mind you, these are only a few examples.

In the famous publication “ Victims of Progress “ by John Badley it has been mentioned multiple times in detail how those tribes being pushed into modernization are suffering through striking health problems. Heart diseases, abnormal teeth decay, significant malnutrition, among many other health obstacles have shown increase in numbers since the process started.

Why do these health problems occur?

It’s mainly in the different diets that come with the European modernization. Within a European diet there is often 10 times more sugar within each meal compared to the traditional meat and vegetables eaten by indigenous groups. The increase in sugar causes the spike in heart diseases and teeth decays shown in reports. In addition, because most indigenous diets are sourced 100% from fresh meat and vegetables they often consume more nutrition per meal. The sudden change from highly nutritious food to packaged steroid filled meat has caused many cases of malnutrition.

Protecting these people under the idea that they too are citizens are not requirements without benefits to us. Reports have shown that indigenous communities produce a significantly less pollution rates compared to that of the most eco-friendly countries and cities out there. More information on this topic will come in the near future!

Thank you for reading!