Traits, Genetics, and Geography

So, with the Rock being a topic of conversation it has brought an interesting topic to mind.

Why are Samoan’s so big? What part of their geneology in their history said:

“If you’re going to be a Pacific Islander you need to be monstrous to survive…”

Lord knows their ancient diet was fish, hogs, breadfruit, etc.

You look at the Inuits, (Eskimos) you see their fatty presence and slanted eyes as means of their survival in the harsh Artic environment. Their diet was incredibly fatty as well, eating blubber of arctic mammilians.

Did some of the Eskimos migrate south to inhabit the pacific islands? If so, then why are Philipino’s generally smaller, darker, and more lean?

I’ve been to the San Diego Chargers camp and stood close enough to Toni Fonoti to realize that he is one humongous human being. My question is why? Why in an environment where the weather is tropical and the workload for survival minimal do these guys get so freaking huge?

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to discuss this topic and see what you all thought…

GAINER

Eskimo’s were not always fat. They survived on high protein, high fat diets for the longest time.

It wasn’t until the white man came along and introduced other foods that caused the obesity you now see. Then again, white man has brought this on to many other cultures as well.

Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.

Oh yeah… It’s all about the Spam bra’…

When I was in Guam they had a Spam cook-off contest…

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
Eskimo’s were not always fat. They survived on high protein, high fat diets for the longest time.

It wasn’t until the white man came along and introduced other foods that caused the obesity you now see. Then again, white man has brought this on to many other cultures as well.

Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.[/quote]

The same in Ethiopia. Those people used to be skinny and starving until that white lady from All in the Family showed up. Now they are…oh, wait.

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.[/quote]

Hey they developed their own love for Spam. It’s one of the biggest selling foods in Hawaii, God only knows why. I’ll eat Spam if I have to. Have to as in if we’re starving, and we’ve exhausted the local supply of birds, bats, rats, and small children first.

Someone needs to check the historical research and see if Samoans have always been a large race of people or if it just happened once the European infleunce kicked in. I personally don’t know.

When I was a student at Pitt, I knew this OL on the team by the name of Penny Semaia. Huge Samoan kid from upstate NY. He wasn’t the best FB player in the world, but easily one of the largest human beings I ever met with “cankles” that would make John Madden proud…

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Eskimo’s were not always fat. They survived on high protein, high fat diets for the longest time.

It wasn’t until the white man came along and introduced other foods that caused the obesity you now see. Then again, white man has brought this on to many other cultures as well.

Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.

The same in Ethiopia. Those people used to be skinny and starving until that white lady from All in the Family showed up. Now they are…oh, wait.
[/quote]

Have you seen her lately? I think she has been eating all their food.

[quote]danreeves1973 wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.

Hey they developed their own love for Spam. It’s one of the biggest selling foods in Hawaii, God only knows why. I’ll eat Spam if I have to. Have to as in if we’re starving, and we’ve exhausted the local supply of birds, bats, rats, and small children first.
[/quote]

I hear you. I used to eat it when I was a kid. I won’t touch that shit now. My relatives still eat it though.

I don’t understand why Hawaiians love it so much though. Nasty!

[quote]danreeves1973 wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.

Hey they developed their own love for Spam. It’s one of the biggest selling foods in Hawaii, God only knows why. I’ll eat Spam if I have to. Have to as in if we’re starving, and we’ve exhausted the local supply of birds, bats, rats, and small children first.

Someone needs to check the historical research and see if Samoans have always been a large race of people or if it just happened once the European infleunce kicked in. I personally don’t know. [/quote]

A lot of Samoans are just naturally built. I have seen guys about 6’7" 250+ lbs with low body fat just shopping at the market and wearing a lavalava (skirt). Some of the women are similarly built (some would call them fat but they really are not!) Not sure why this is but I am certain if you take the average Polynesian and the average person of any other race, the Polynesian will have more lean body mass and a bigger structure. Not eating traditional foods they can also get very fat, but even on more traditional diets many have more impressive builds.

It may be a relatively recent genetic mutation confined to a small number of genes–or possibly one-- for which the effects on survival rates haven’t been significant enough to select against yet. Of course, it probably is the western food and lifestyle. It seems that we are rapidly catching up, and by “we” I mean all you fatasses who aren’t reading this.

I think it probably took a lot of upper body strength to paddle across the pacific in a canoe. Perhaps only the biggest, strongest, and most fit ever reached places like Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, and Hawaii.

Todd

[quote]etaco wrote:
It may be a relatively recent genetic mutation confined to a small number of genes–or possibly one-- for which the effects on survival rates haven’t been significant enough to select against yet. Of course, it probably is the western food and lifestyle. It seems that we are rapidly catching up, and by “we” I mean all you fatasses who aren’t reading this.[/quote]

All the Western diet has done to Samoans is promote obesity. They still have a lot more lean body mass to begin with under the flab though. A lot of guys never lift and still look more developed than some people who do. My brother has several high school friends who outweigh him by a good 50 lbs a the same height and who are not fat. NOt to say there are not people of other races who do, too, but Samoans are a small percentage of the population yet have the majority of the buffest bods around here.

A guy in one of my classes was playing football for UH and they had to make a special helmet for him because even his head was gigantic. He was defense so not ripped but he was over 300 lbs at abround 6’1", solid and just HUGE.

Interesting to note also that according to a NFL study, Samoans are the most likely to make it to the NFL. I believe the statistic was something absurd like 35% of male Samoans would make a career playing football.

I saw a documentary on TV about this exact topic so I know everything : )

In New Zealand the Polynesian guys are destroying most of the white kids who play rugby and league and are taking most of the spots on the pro teams, so there was a local documentary on why they are bigger than European kids at the same age.

Anyway, the reason is that at in the South Pacific Islands it is really cold. Especially when you are moving from Island to Island and there is no shelter there. It rains a lot and you get really wet and then it is very cold at night. There are no large mammals to make warm clothing out of. So over a few hundred years the people who did the best were the ones that could shiver the best.

Seriously. The reason is that the more fast twitch fibers you have the longer you can survive in the cold eg shiver. The slow twitch skinny people died off, and the fast twitch people survived.

Also there is a naturally occurring anabolic steroid in Taro which is their main root crop. Again, seriously.

Taro contains anabolics? This is a new one.

[quote]Chris (NZ) wrote:
I saw a documentary on TV about this exact topic so I know everything : )

In New Zealand the Polynesian guys are destroying most of the white kids who play rugby and league and are taking most of the spots on the pro teams, so there was a local documentary on why they are bigger than European kids at the same age.

Anyway, the reason is that at in the South Pacific Islands it is really cold. Especially when you are moving from Island to Island and there is no shelter there. It rains a lot and you get really wet and then it is very cold at night. There are no large mammals to make warm clothing out of. So over a few hundred years the people who did the best were the ones that could shiver the best.

Seriously. The reason is that the more fast twitch fibers you have the longer you can survive in the cold eg shiver. The slow twitch skinny people died off, and the fast twitch people survived.

Also there is a naturally occurring anabolic steroid in Taro which is their main root crop. Again, seriously.

[/quote]

Very interesting!

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Eskimo’s were not always fat. They survived on high protein, high fat diets for the longest time.

It wasn’t until the white man came along and introduced other foods that caused the obesity you now see. Then again, white man has brought this on to many other cultures as well.

Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.

The same in Ethiopia. Those people used to be skinny and starving until that white lady from All in the Family showed up. Now they are…oh, wait.
[/quote]

hahahaha. Thats fucked up.

http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant475/Papers/Owens.pdf

Another theory deals with the “Thrifty Gene”, used to explain why many indigenous peoples, esp. PAcific Islanders and American Indians now have such a high rate of obesity. Basic idea is that the ability to store up large amounts of body mass, fat and lean, for approaching lean times was a desireable trait and brought over the years in these people. Factor in a modern diet and BAM, you have obesity.

[quote]danreeves1973 wrote:
Hey they developed their own love for Spam. It’s one of the biggest selling foods in Hawaii, God only knows why. I’ll eat Spam if I have to. Have to as in if we’re starving, and we’ve exhausted the local supply of birds, bats, rats, and small children first.
[/quote]

One of my nerdy Jewish friends told me that Spam sales were very high in parts of the world where cannibals can buy it. Apparently, it is the closest thing to human meat taste out there. True? False? I don`t even want to know…

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
Eskimo’s were not always fat. They survived on high protein, high fat diets for the longest time.

It wasn’t until the white man came along and introduced other foods that caused the obesity you now see. Then again, white man has brought this on to many other cultures as well.

Hawaiians were in better shape until taken over by Americans. Now you see Hawaiians devouring spam, rice and other white flour processed foods. Damn white man.

The same in Ethiopia. Those people used to be skinny and starving until that white lady from All in the Family showed up. Now they are…oh, wait.

Have you seen her lately? I think she has been eating all their food.
[/quote]

I think she’s been eating them. I’ll give a donation to feed the children when she stops eating em.