¨If you want to lose weight, go to Cuba¨

As writes a guide book written on Cuba in 1993 – perhaps the ‘most special’ of the years of the ‘special period’ - when hunger was prolific, BMI dropped 1.5 units, obesity fell from 14 to 7%, diabetes deaths fell by 51%, heart disease by 35%, stoke by 20% and waiting in a queue was all you could do to (attempt to) secure a meal. The year before the embargo had been intensified and almost overnight 750 million dollar’s worth of food and medical supplies to Cuba were halted.  The result? As well as having to walk and bike more they also had to eat less. More specifically: more vegetables and less fat. Vegetables ceased to become weeds as necessity forced people to broaden their horizons. By 1994 the average Cuban had lost 20 pounds.

Back to 2011 though and I’d say a modest majority – perhaps 75% of the woman and 50% of the men (completely unverified percentages of course) - are plump bordering on being safe to call overweight. Yet in a country where food is still rationed, staples continue to be difficult to find, salaries don’t go too far and tropical fruits and vegetables are produced in abundance – how exactly is this happening?

As always the answer isn’t simple. At first it’s easy to blame it on sugar but food is such a loaded socio-politico-environmental issue that often you can’t isolate one from the other. Perhaps sugar is to blame but why do people load up on sugar? Because they don’t necessarily have a choice. Some observations that could be to blame are:  

1.     History. Years of severe rationing and insecure food access induced the ‘eat it whilst you can’ mentality – a bit like living in a family of four and not wanting to miss out, though obviously a million times worse. The shock of the special period could explain the speed and functionality of meals: the average lunch at the organopónico is eaten in 3 and a half minutes (personal observation again) and dinner at home is served as and when, and if two people happen to sit together at the same time, bonus.

2.     A sweet tooth. Cuba is traditionally a sugar producing country (exporting at its peak in the 1980s over 7.5million tonnes), and even though it doesn’t produce sugar for export any more, this is another tradition they’ve acquired a taste for. Spoonful’s (at least three) go into a small espresso as standard, to otherwise fairly sweet fresh fruit juices a few more, and the same to milkshakes. Then for snacks, stick of rock are offered by wandering sellers on every corner, and sweet sickly ice creams, caramelos and fluffy sponge cake when available are the perfect treat. If you’re ploughing all day then these snacks come in handy. If you’re sitting down sowing seeds you’re probably ingesting a fair few more empty calories than you can use up.

3.     The notorious white carb. Only it’s not so notorious here. Carb phobes don’t exist in the way they do in the West – mostly I guess because there is no possibility of the opposite; a low carb diet. Diets such as the Atkins or Dukan diet that rely on an abundant supply of protein would sound absurd here, and would of course be impossible on even a high salary. Indeed it seems ridiculous to consider such self-indulgent diets here where the only colour that bread, pasta and rice comes in is white. And it’s not of a high quality: Che famously asked why the country can’t make good bread. Whether people like it though seems to be neither here nor there; it’s make do or go fend.

4.     The obligatory oil pan. Again, this practise will have arisen out of necessity; ovens seem to be rare and even if you’re lucky enough to have one you may not have the experience or desire to use it. Add to this the evaporation of much of their former food culture at the beginning of the revolution, the absence of a roaring trade in celebrity cookery books and the lack of internet to check the glycemic index of your average cassava for example, you can see the predicament - frying your plantain, chicken, pork, fish, potatoes, eggs etc becomes the default option.

5.     Quantity. This still various enormously so it’s difficult to call on this one. I was quite shocked when lunchtime came on the first day at the Organopónico – it consisted of an army style tin tray with 5 or so areas to stow food - a bit like the plastic ones we used to have at school – only it had about half the amount of food!  A cup full of yellow rice mixed with some grisly meat and a few pieces of shredded cabbage. How could this sustain a clan of farm labourers? Dinner, at least in this 3-boy household is another matter – plates of rice, plantain, beans, chicken and a little side plate of veg come later.  That and the variation of sugary snacks keeps one going I guess.

6.     Export. Tall palm trees, lush greeny-yellow mangos, fresh pink papaya – despite seeing them growing here and largely being able to lay your hands on them they’re not cheap or ubiquitous. Why? Because virtually all leaves the country to feed us either whole or in fruit juice. This drives the prices up and makes it harder to find. Mango’s are in season at the moment and I’m totally addicted. Interestingly though I keep being warned about how fat eating mangos can make you. I know they’re one of the more sugar laden fruits but they’re also rich in fibre and vitamins and minerals. It’s curious – no one’s mentioned anything about how sweets and ice cream go to your bum!

Whatever the cause, the result is familiar: high cholesterol and heart disease are beginning to claim lives here and it seems the return of oil has brought about the return of the flab - just as Ian Roberts hypothesises in The Energy Glut (which was a very good book to bring!)

What happens then? This is where it gets really interesting.

Remember la libretta? Well, if it transpires that you’ve eaten over your fair share of the libreta food – and then some – you’re given la dieta. No need to translate here. If your six monthly mandatory blood test shows high cholesterol or high percentage of triglycerides, the doctor will prescribe you a state approved diet. The two key changes here are the exchange of whole milk powder (if you were entitled to it) to skimmed and the chance to eat fish instead of chicken - as long as there is some obviously. And they also hand out some rules: only eat beans twice a week (since they’re usually cooked in oil), don’t eat too much sugar and stick to rice, root veg, fruit, and vegetables, which are in theory unlimited – if you can afford / find them at all that is.

Ironically, as a sure fire way to get fish instead of chicken, this is the diet that everyone wants to be on. So much so that people will pay their doctors to skew their results and put them back on the diet after their six months is up. This might sound ridiculous but I’ve plenty more examples like this to share…