Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 1, 1 January 1991 — ʻAi Pono, E Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

A Hawaiian tip for weight loss

New Year's is an exciting time because we have a ehanee to start fresh with a New Year's resolution. One of the most popular resolutions is to lose some of the pounds gained over the holidays (and over the

years). Last month one of the most neglected keys to losing weight was demonstrated in Kona. Carey Tarumoto, health educator of the Kona Department of Health graciously invited Claire Hughes, Native Hawaiian nutritionist and executive director of the Governor's Health Fromotion Center, Helen Kanawaliwali 0'Connor of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and myself to present the Wai'anae diet program with the people of Kona. Roughly 30 people eame, including community members, nurses, nutritionists, a physician and other health workers. We all had a wonderful time sharing and learning from eaeh other. What important principle of weight loss was demonstrated? The principle of social support. In the 1985 lnternational Congress on Obesity, a number of specialists in weight loss determined that any good weight loss program should include: 1. diet 2. exercise 3. behavior modification 4. social support It is easy to forget this fourth and crucial key to weight loss, "social support" or what 1 rather eall

"family support" or "community support" because it does not deal directly with what the individual does. It deals with what a group does together and it plays an important part in how we form, change, and maintain a new eating pattern. In ancient times, New Year's was when people eame together as families. In this setting, good times and good food were shared. Aloha became associated with the foods eaten at these and other like gatherings. These are the kinds of food that people began to want and so they farmed it and stores stocked it. Soon others learned how to prepare these foods and a whole tradition of foods developed. These traditions are now associated with increasingly dangerous foods — foods that are greasy and too high in salt and sugar. Corn chips are 56 percent fat. Potato chips are 63 percentfat. Modern Hawaians have become accustomed to the modern diet. As a result they began to be more overweight and to die of modern diseases. It's as simple as that. How do we use the key of "social support" to heip us lose weight? First, we must start with ourselves. That may take some commitment, like a New Year's resolution. It could be as simple as vowing to eat traditional foods or their equivalent onee a day. It could be as simple as following some of the suggestions that I have made in this eolumn. Next we ean get a partner or share these ideas with others. During the Wai'anae Diet program last year, some of the participants took their traditional Hawaiian foods to luneh meetings (because during the program they were not allowed to eat

other than Hawaiian food) and created a stir among the people at their meetings. One of these luncheons occurred in Honolulu, another on Moloka'i and one as far away as Washington, D.C.l Others at the meetings became interested in this food and began to want the traditional food rather than the modern food. In this way, seeds were planted in the minds of dozens of others that this was a preferred way to eat. These people, in turn help us to continue our own healthy eating ways. Our own experience bears out the importance of social support. Those who had a supportive partner tended to continue, to keep losing weight and maintained the weight loss after the program was over. Perhaps meetings like the one in Kona are a start. We extend many mahalos for the invitation and the demonstration of the pnneiple of social or community support. Certainly there are ehallenges to overcome such as laek of funding or poi shortages. Who knows what more will eome out of such meetings? Perhaps it will be the start of a new year of health for some of the people of Kona. If more people and families and communities begin to eome together and eat in the Hawaiian way, perhaps it will be the start of a new era of health for the Hawaiian people. Dr. Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is the Director of Preuentiue Medicine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensiue Health Center. A majorify of its board and its 18,000 clients are of Hawaiian ancestry.