Eating in the Amazon: Nutritional Status of the Riverine Populations and Possible Nudge Interventions

• Published in: Foods Vol. 10; no. 5; p. 1015
• Main Authors: Machado, Camila Lorena Rodrigues, Crespo-Lopez, Maria Elena, Augusto-Oliveira, Marcus, Arrifano, Gabriela de Paula, Macchi, Barbarella de Matos, Lopes-Araújo, Amanda, Santos-Sacramento, Letícia, Souza-Monteiro, José Rogério, Alvarez-Leite, Jacqueline Isaura, Souza, Carlos Barbosa Alves de
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 06.05.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Amazonian; anthropometric data; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Consumers; Consumption; Contamination; Diet; Eating behavior; Efficiency; Fish; Food; Food science; Food sources; Gold mines & mining; Hypertension; Insulin; Insulin resistance; nudge interventions; Nutrition; Nutrition research; Nutritional status; Population; Populations; Questionnaires; Risk analysis; riverine population; Tropical forests; Urban populations; vulnerable; Brazil; nudge interventions; nutrition; vulnerable; behavior analysis; Amazonian; anthropometric data; riverine population
• ISSN: 2304-8158; 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods10051015

The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world and a source of healthy food, such as fruits and fish. Surprisingly, the Amazonian riverine population present an increased prevalence (as high as 58%) of non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension and insulin resistance, even higher than that described for the urban population of the Amazon. Therefore, this work aimed to analyze the nutritional status and associated risk of the riverine population. Body mass index, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio, and neck circumference (NC) were evaluated, and risk analysis was assayed. Furthermore, data about occupation and the prevalence of consumers of the different groups of food were analyzed. All anthropometric parameters revealed high proportions of individuals at risk, WC and NC being the factors that had more high-risk women and men, respectively. Our data confirmed the characteristic profile of the riverine communities with a high number of fish consumers, but also observed different patterns probably associated to a phenomenon of nutrition transition. Based on our data, some nudge interventions that take into account the principles of behavior analysis are discussed and proposed for these populations, aiming to improve the nutritional status and avoid the long-term consequences of the results showed by this work.