Περίληψη:
The health (self-reported health conditions) and nutritional status
(food and nutrient intake, nutritional biochemistry, anthropometry) of
189 elderly Greeks living in Melbourne, Australia were described and
compared with 104 elderly Greeks living in a rural town in Greece
(Spata) using a validated health and food frequency questionnaire. Spata
was chosen because the traditional diet is maintained by the community
and may act as a ‘surrogate’ measure of diets prevalent in Greece prior
to the Melbourne sample’s migration to Australia in the 1960s. This
enabled identification of dietary trends that may be contributing to the
deteriorating health of elderly migrant Greeks. Compared with Spata
Greeks, Melbourne Greeks had significantly greater intakes of animal
foods (meat), legumes, protein, margarine, polyunsaturated fats, beer
and lower intakes of cereals, carbohydrates, wine and olive oil. The
contribution of these dietary differences, as well as the influence of
high storage-iron levels, impaired immunity and greater prevalence of
obesity and abdominal fatness, to the increasing prevalence of heart
disease and cancer (especially amongst women) requires further study.
Συγγραφείς:
KourisBlazos, A
Wahlqvist, ML
Trichopoulou, A and
Polychronopoulos, E
Trichopoulos, D
