Dietary Patterns and Food Consumption Survey in the Federated States of Micronesia: A Case Study in Pingelap Island, Pohnpei State

摘要

Before the 1950s, the population of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) consumed a traditional diet based on starch staple crops and marine resources. This began to be replaced by a modern food in the 1960s and this phenomenon accelerated after aCompact of Free Association was signed between the FSM and the United States in 1986. Previous researches on dietary patterns in the FSM were undertaken only for a very short-period and they did not indicate the dietaries for the whole year. Therefore,a detailed study of household food consumption for every meal over a period of 18 months was conducted to understand the dietary patterns of the inhabitants of Pingelap Island, Pohnpei State, the FSM. Inhabitants of Pingelap Island were partially dependent on imported rice, but they all consumed banana, breadfruit, mweiang {Cyrtosperma merkusii; giant swamp taro), and fish obtained locally at a high frequency. Breadfruit was available seasonally, so the frequency of its consumption fluctuated, and consumption of banana and mweiang increased depending on the availability of breadfruit. The consumption frequencies of imported fresh meat, canned fish, and canned meat were very low. These observations suggest that the dietary patterns on Pingelap Island resemble traditional diets, with a reliance on food available locally and favorable for food security.