As I begin to write this, I'm not sure what angle I want to take....funny or serious (or neither for that matter). I suppose a lack of clarity is generally bad when writing, but hey, its not like you have to pay to read this! Funny things are generally better than serious things....and serious things can be funny sometimes anyway...so I'll just let you decide. So what's funny? SPAM and fat people (riding scooters). What is not funny? Diabetes. (Although I think its funny when people say "Dia-beed-is" rather than "Dia-beed-eez").
Did you know that a few years ago Saipan was ranked #3 for the highest rate of diabetes per capita in the WORLD. That's insane! Look on a map, now zoom in enough for a tiny dot to appear in the middle of the ocean....that's how small Saipan is - and we're #3 in the world. The #1 spot belongs to Nauru, our Micronesian neighbor to the Southeast (the picture above is of a Nauruan fella). If you look at many other islands in the South Pacific...the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, etc....you'll find the same story with obesity and diabetes. So why then, on tropical islands with endless opportunities to live active lifestyles outside and easy access to healthy foods like fish and tropical fruits, is there such an epidemic? In a word, SPAM.
SPAM is a breakfast, lunch, and dinner staple in Saipan. SPAM sushi, SPAM fried rice, you can even get SPAM at McDonalds here. SPAM, along with Vienna sausages and every other kind of delectable salted canned meat, have their very own aisle at every grocery store. If you're really cool, you sport SPAM Island t-shirts and slap SPAM Island bumper stickers on your car. SPAM is an institution. It's not hard to figure out why...the good ol' WWII days brought out rationing, canned goods, etc. It stuck around because its cheap and it doesn't have to be refrigerated. Blammo! Bring on the salty obesity!
But I digress. All of this SPAM and diabeedis talk was really a long winded way to tell you of another island phenomenon as amazing as the Nauraun man above. It's mango season here in Saipan, and boy are they delicious! So here I am enjoying a fresh mango the other day with a local friend when he produces a baggie of what appeared to be cinnamon. I thought it would be odd to sprinkle cinnamon on a mango, but would have never thought that it wasn't cinnamon at all but instead a mixture of salt, Kool-Aid powder, and crushed beef bouillon cubes. Mmmm, beefy. Nothing says healthy like pouring salt, imitation sugar, and salty beef flavoring all over a ripe tropical fruit to make it taste like some new funky flavored off-brand Skittles.
But alas, unless we get some of Michelle Obama's childhood obesity brochures out here soon, it will be next to impossible to end the salty reign of SPAM and beefy mango Skittles. Until then, Viva SPAM Island!
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