During a 5-month study, 240 adolescents from a Tubuai island college (in French Polynesia) received a balanced diet based almost exclusively on local agricultural products and fishing by the island community and weekly physical activity was augmented by 2 to 4 hours of training in Polynesian Va'a canoes. 

As Northern communities have moved from healthy traditional wild food diets to western imported food, the health benefits Dr. Dewailly has studied in their communities for over 30 years have steadily eroded