Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 7, 1 July 1991 — Ancient Hawaiian diet reduces modern health risks [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ancient Hawaiian diet reduces modern health risks

Last month, I described to you how to find out how to lose an average of 17.1 lbs. per person without eounting calories. We talked about the Wai'anae Diet Program (WDP) manual as a landmark publication for Hawaii.

This month, I'd like to describe to you a landmark publication about the Hawaiian diet with national and possibly worldwide significance. In June, we were fortunate to have the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the world's most respected nutrition journal, publish the results of the Wai'anae Diet Program. The authors are myself, Native Hawaiian nutritionist Claire K. Hughes, MS, RD, Sheila Beckham, MPH, RD, and Helen Kanawaliwali 0'Connor. The program was supported by the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. This article permits the world's professional community to share in the results of the Wai'anae Diet Program's trial of the Hawaiian diet. I am now able to share with you the official results of the program. In the Wai'anae Diet Program, 20 Native Hawaiians ate traditional Hawaiian food exclusively for a period of three weeks. The participants ate as mueh as they wanted as this was a non-calorie restricted diet. In three weeks, the average weight loss was 17.1 lbs. Cholesterol fell from an average of 222mg/dl to 191 mg/dl, enough to take the average from a moderately high-risk range (over 200) to a low-risk range (under 200). The "good" cholesterol to "bad" cholesterol range improved slightly as well. Triglycerides or blood fats, a risk factor for heart disease, also decreased a great deal from an average of 236 mg/dl to an average of 138 mg/dl. Perhaps the most remarkable finding besides the weight loss was that the blood sugar fell dramatically. This is important because Native Hawaiians suffer more death from high b!ood sugar (diabetes mellitus) than the rest of the United States. A normal fasting blood sugar is no higher than 120 mg/dl. Theaverageblood sugar was 162 mg/dl at the beginning of the program but fell to a near

m m3Sm Mililil m - m Wm normal 123 mg/dl after the three-week diet. This is even more remarkable when you consider that I had to reduce the medication of three of the individuals with diabetes so that they would not drop too low. More importantly, one of the participants who is pure Hawaiian and required 60 units of insulin is now no longer on any diabetes medication. Because space is so short in this eolumn, and because all the results are important, I will present

more results in a series of articles starting next month. Before I close this article, however, I would like to acknowledge some of the many people who made this publication possible. I would like to first acknowledge Claire Hughes whose efforts helped get the WDP off the ground and was the key factor in our being published in the'American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. I would also like to acknowledge Helen Kanawaliwali 0'Connor who is the driving force behind both the Moloka'i and the Wai'anae Diet Program and Midge Eli, Wai'anae's counterpart to Helen, for continuing the program on the Wai'anae coast. Sheila Beckham, our nutrition director, made sure our nutrition figures were correct. Kauka Kekuni Blaisdell, Kauka Walter Willett of Havard, and the late Kauka Georgeda Buchbinder provided indispensable advice. Finally, I'd like to emphasize that this was a community-based effort. The program was supported by the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center with the in-kind assistance of Kahumana Farm and Community, and the Honolulu Poi Company. The Robert E. Black Memorial Trust has since given us a small grant to continue the program and the James and Abigail Campbell Foundation has provided funds to publish our book. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been very kind in its support in trying to get funding through the Legislature to promote the program in three other communities but we were unsuccessful. We hope that by publicizing the diet we will be able to secure future funds for the continuation of the progam to promote the health of the Hawaiian people. Meanwhile, you ean leam more about the diet and help the program by purchasing a copy of the 62-page Wai'anae Book of Hawaiian Health by sending $9.75 to WCCHC, 86-260 Farrington Hwy, Wai'anae, HI 96792. All proceeds go toward the support of the Wai'anae Diet Program. Dr. Terry Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is the director of preventive medicine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. A majority of its board and its 18,000 clients are of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

'Ai Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

Change your Iife . . .

the wapanae book of hawaiian health The Wai'anae Diet Proeram Manual

Plant the seeds of change in jourself and -among all the Hawaiian people.

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