Central European and Russian Diet
June 14, 2011 by admin2
Filed under Diet Featured
Central Europe (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Rebublic) and the former Soviet Union (Russian Federation) were under the communist period during 1970 – 1989. During these times, these communist states had lower standards of living and the amount of food they get was always insufficient especially those foods that came from the animals. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) that between 1961 and 1990, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria had lower meat consumption compared to Western Europe or the United States. In the same way, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania had lower milk and butter consumption compared to Western Europe or the United States.
Some believe that economic conditions were the cause of the health status gap between the East and West. The people in Central Europe were wealthy but they are not that healthy. There were dramatic changes that occurred after the start of communism. These changes lead to the development of a toxic psychosocial environment. Chronic stress, loss of personal perspective, rage, tension, social isolation, hostility, hopelessness, frustration and apathy drove people to lose interest in health. These factors led people in committing suicide and indulging in alcohol (alcoholism). Because of this information-polluted environment, people under communism refused to learn health education. Between 1970 and 1990, people in various regions of Eastern and Central Europe experienced nutritional deficiencies caused by low consumption of vitamin C, selenium and other sources of antioxidants.
After the collapse of communism after 1989, Central European countries had higher consumption of fruit and vegetables, decreased fatty milk and butter consumption, and increased consumption of high-quality margarines and vegetable oils. There were also huge improvements on the quality of modern health care and its availability.
Russian and Finnish epidemiologists had compared the plasma ascorbic-acid concentration among men in the neighboring Russian district and Finland. Nearly all Russian men had a severe vitamin C deficiency while over 95% Finns had regular vitamin C levels. It is apparent that in Russia, an imbalance took place in which factors increasing the production of free radicals dominated protective antioxidant factors. Causes of the production of free radicals include alcoholism, smoking and pollution. High occurrence of smoking and alcoholism played a very vital factor in contributing to the high cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rates in Russia. A significant part of cardiovascular disease deaths in Russia were due to cardiomyopathies associated to alcoholism. Alcohol is being smuggled in Russia on a huge scale. Alcoholism greatly contributed in CVD deaths as well as in the increase in the number of accidents, suicides, injuries and murders.
