How cheap meat from New Zealand made Tonga unhealthy

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The Pacific island of Tonga is the most obese country in the world. "There's a lot of importation of processed food from New Zealand", said Sunia Soakai, a health planning officer for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. "Over the years, I got quite big. I probably tipped the scales at about 170 kilograms, but I've managed to shed 70 kilos since", he added. A whopping 34% of people in Tonga suffer from non-communicable disease, a phrase that has come to be used as synonymous with diabetes in Tonga, according to the Tongan Health Ministry.