what they eat?

How do some New Guineans survive on what they eat?

ly Dr. JOHN V. G. A. DURNIN, leader in Physiology, University of Glasgow, Scotland.

For biologists and anthropolo

;ists, the many isolated New juinean groups of peoples, with

heir distinct genetic make-up,

heir very different physiques,

heir sociological and environ

nental diversity, have provided

in absorbing area of study in ecent years. A certain urgency ibout this research is now ap >arent, since conditions are

iltering rapidly and irrevocably

hrough the advance of modern yays of life.

The studies which concern me are (art of an investigation involving earns of geneticists, anthropologists, pidemiologists and medical personnel esponsible for assessing physical icalth and the illnesses common mong these communities. Physio ogists also study nutrition, physique, olerance to the climatic environment, ihysical fitness and lung function.

Some of the scientists involved are rom Australia and some from Britain. Most of the physiologists re British, from the medical schools n London, Cardiff in Wales and jlasgow in Scotland —although one if my assistants, a woman, who has ieen living in New Guinea for the last year, is an Italian Professor of Nutrition from Rome.

My own part is to direct the iutritional and anthropometric assess nents on two groups, living in noderately remote regions, one on he coast and the other in the highl ands. The project has been in opera ion for more than a year and we lave completed the study of the :oastal village where we lived for ibout 10 months in one of the huts, fhe total population of that village

'as around 1,500 individuals. On lore than 100 adults and 300 hildren we have measured, by weigh ig, all the food eaten by each idividual during seven consecutive ays.

We have also measured the energy hese people use up in their daily life, have obtained detailed records f their complete pattern of life iroughout the whole 24 hours of ach day (usually by being with them Imost continually) and measuring dth a special instrument the energy xpended in various activities —sitting, talking, carrying taro from the ardens, planting, repairing houses, nd so on.

I realise that this sounds as if it light make life very artificial for tie subjects, but when one has lived Dr a long time in the village, and een treated like a friend by every ne, it is quite apparent when any isruption to the normal routine is eing caused by our presence.

We have also measured on 100 if the adults how much fat each man t woman has in the body, by a pecial technique which involves find ig out the density of the body by Archimedes’ principle, weighing the erson first in the usual fashion and hen under water.

One remarkable preliminary finding f the nutrition of the New Guineans /as that the total food intake, supply ig calories for energy and protein or building and reconstituting the >ody tissues, was so low that it eemed, nutritionally, unable to ustain life. Yet the people are often /ell-built and muscular and seem luite active. Indeed, it has been uggested that the New Guineans may iave developed a special mechanism d manufacture protein in the body, /hich is unknown in any other •eople.

I think this is improbable. It might ie simply that the standards of lutritional adequacy for maintenance >f health and well-being are often iased on studies on European popu ations, which do not necessarily (reduce results pertinent to peoples iving on a different nutritional plane. )ur preliminary findings seem to uggest that the diet may be low, but trobably adequate for their require nents—indeed, in some ways, perhaps uperior to a common European-type liet, in that the New Guineans eat i negligible quantity of fat, compared vith 40 per cent, or more of the ;alories from fat taken by most Europeans.

Of its kind, the complete investiga ion of these two coastal and high and New Guinean populations is )robably the most comprehensive ever :arried out and it should produce esults of scientific importance.