Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 9, 1 September 1988 — ʻAi Pono, E Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

Loeal Common Sense On Diet

Last month, on a loeal radio talk show, "Nutrition and You" I interviewed Claire Hughes, R.D. (registered dietitian), a Department of Health nutritionist and an officer of the E Ola Mau organization of Native Hawaiian health professionals. The topic

of discussion was the Moloka'i diet as she was one of the consultants on this landmark study. It was a joy to hear the many callers discuss what their elders used to eat and their insights about diet. One caller from the Kapiolani area said, "the ancient Hawaiians were stalwart with good muscle, and no fat Hawaiians those days." In her wisdom, this caller also said "And look at those fat buggahs in Europe, the royalty, but the eommon people who ate the brown bread, they were the healthy ones." What was interesting about this comment is that this remarkable woman's simple common-sense statement reflects the results of

some of the most sophisticated research on the nutrition. That is, that people who eat the simple traditional commoner diets of their ancestors are healthy people. The unfortunate thing is that today, most of us eat like kings and queens. Last month's article showed a graph of the change in dietary fat with Western civilization whieh is similar to the diets of royalty in fat content. What is not shown is that within that increase in fat is an increase in animal fat. Animal fats are high in saturated fat as well as cholesterol. Saturated fat by itself ean increase cholesterol levels and thus increase the risk of heart disease.

What is the difference between saturated fat and polyunsaturated fats? One characteristic of saturated fat is that it is solid at room temperature. Polyunsaturated fats by contrast are generally liquid at room temperature. Since vegetable oils are high in polyunsaturates, they are found in liquid form. This is why a margarine, whieh is made from vegetable oil has to be partially "hydrogenated." Hydrogenation turns these oiIs partially into "saturated" fats and allows the margarine to be sold in the supermarket. Many ioeal favorites that the "eommon" people eat are low in saturated fats. And it makes a lot of sense to eat more foods such as these. Here is a delicious recipe courtesy of Claire Hughes whieh is low in saturated fat and free of cholesterol.

Steamed Bananas Take yeIlow cooking bananas (yellow or with a little brown spotting). Plaee in a steamer basket in a pot. Fill pot with ]/2 ineh water. Cover pot. Steam 5 to 6 minutes until skin pops. Slit skin and eat as is. Microwave method: Plaee cooking bananas in a microwave dish with 2 Tbs. water. Perforate skin with a fork. Microwave approx. 2 minutes until the skin pops. Eat as is . . . Delicious! Dr. Shintani, Director of Preuention Health Services at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, is a physician and nutritionist. He is also coordinator of their Malama Ola preventive health prosram. A majority of the Center's clients are native Hawaiians.