Modification of a national diet and lifestyle toward wild-type foods: the Cuban experience in promoting health.

Cuba’s economy has undergone serious constraints since the begininng of the 1990s. A comprehensive analysis of food availability, food consumption, nutritional status, physical inactivity, smoking habit, and mortality rate for cardiovascular disesase and stroke from 1988 to 2004 was carried out and the main issues concerning lifestyle patterns were identified. On the basis of this information, the main results obtained reveals a reduction in consumption of total energy, total amounts of fats, cholesterol, animal protein, dairy products, and increased consumption of vegetable, tubers, cereals, soja bean products, and beans, as well as decreased prevalence of obesity among people older than 15 yr age, less sedentary people, and reduction in the prevalence of smokers in the 1990s. A concomitant reduction on cardiovascular mortality rate was observed at the same time. Even though the hypothesis supported the positive impact of the economic crisis of the early 1990s on the public health epidemiological profile there is not evidence confirmed based on epidemiological studies. It will be necessary to follow-up on those parameters in the coming years.