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Crisps in front of papaya: Cooke Islanders are losing flavour for wholesome indigenous foods | Declan McCormack | Global Evolution

"As a child," says Tupou, a Cook Islands peasant, "we mainly used to eat freshwater seafood and tomato, papaya and tato. In a recent poll by the Department of Public health, 24% of women and 34% of men are overweight. Many of the island' s inhabitants get ill from eating on the islands.

The secluded Cook Islands in the South Pacific have been successfully developed in the tourism sector for 30 years. Its unspoilt shores and clear waters draw more than 120,000 tourists annually, who work for the island' s inhabitants and account for up to 90% of the population. Now 82% of the state's 15 islands depend on imported foods and rely on ship-based air services from New Zealand and freight every week.

As a result of the resort boutiques, West German fast-food shops have been created, where the island' s inhabitants are spending their salaries and, with the boom in tourist activity, they are also becoming obese. "We' re having a snag with the excess of groceries here," says Dr Rangi Fariu, Cook Islands Chief of Medicine, as he is standing in front of an after-school hospital in Rarotonga, where a line of obese men and woman are waiting to be seen.

"These days humans have cash in their pocket and many babies are still babies that eat in their mouth. "Fariu has been visiting hospitals on most islands for four years and his prognosis is bleak: And, of course, they die before their time, they die young.

" Noncommunicable disease (NCDs) accounted for 81% of adults' death in the Cook Islands in 2010. The world' s political leadership is meeting this weekend in Apia, Samoa, at the United Nations Small Islands States ( "Sids") meeting to study the impact of globalization on countries such as the Cook Islands and to discuss the disastrous socio-economic impact of the wealth of livelihood.

There are many sid's at the top of the world NCD pandemic, and addressing the resulting public and private sector public and private sector public healthcare challenges will eventually call for tough choices on issues such as imported foods, public healthcare and agribusiness. There seems to be great opportunity for so many visitors to the islands to enter the area, but the provision of daily supplies of fruits and veggies, competing with foreign loads, has proven to be a major upside.

Once agricultural areas are now used for luxurious hotels, and young people like Stanley, who would have become peasants, are attracted by the tourist industry. "We depend a lot on importation and the biggest challenges are to keep ourselves going," says Rangi. Co-operating with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the Department of Agricultures is increasing the supply of fruits, veggies and nuts.

Changing people's behavior and adding local, nourishing and less caloric food to the diet of the island' s inhabitants certainly seems to be a move in the right directions.