Obesity reduction and its possible consequences

Abstract

"I n a recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, 1 we described the relation between sustained population-wide weight loss and a decline in all-cause mortality and in the rates of death from diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease in Cuba. The widespread weight loss resulted from the economic crisis known as the “Special Period,” which Cuba experienced in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This period of economic and social hardship also had negative consequences for health. For example, a neuropathy outbreak, possibly due to vitamin deficiencies, affected 50 000 people between 1992 and 1993,2 and the decline in infant mortality that Cuba had been experiencing reversed between 1990 and 1993.3 The neuropathy outbreak did not affect children, elderly people or pregnant women because a special rationing system was in place to protect them. The Cuban population showed high levels of social cohesion, especially within families, in a time of economic hardship."