Something in the water in Panama?

SOME CLAIMS about diet and health in far-off places should be taken with a grain of salt. In Monday's Health/Science section, Dr. Norman Hollenberg attributes low rates of hypertension and heart disease among the island Kuna tribe of Panama to a high intake of unprocessed cocoa ("His find could be a chocolate lover's dream"). This is part of a research program he calls potentially "the most important in the history of medicine."

With more care, Hollenberg would have found that traditional Kuna drinks are based on corn and bananas as much as cacao, and that today the Kuna drink vast amounts of coffee and Kool-Aid. Most cocoa consumed today comes from tins, as a visit to any island store would confirm, and the traditional crop of home-grown cacao (much reduced in recent decades) is dedicated in considerable part to ritual, to be burnt in clay braziers.

As for the low rates of heart disease, Hollenberg might consider the effects of a low-fat, high-fiber diet; exercise in an economy largely based on agriculture, fishing, and lobster-diving; and the complete absence of automobiles.
JAMES HOWE, Professor of anthropology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge