Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1991 — ʻAi Pono, E Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

Hawaiian holiday foods

Want a simple tip on how to put traditional Hawaiian foods on your holiday table? The holidays are the perfect time to do this because it is a time when people get together and share. Sharing is one of the

most important aspects of the Wai anae diet program. This is one reason we produced the Wai'anae diet manual so that everyone ean leam about it. By sharing, you reap the benefits of the program and by your exampie may help improve the health of your many friends and relatives. It is a dream of many of us that all Hawaiians will one day make all their painas (feasts) and parties truly Hawaiian the way they were in ancient times, serving only traditional Hawaiian foods cooked in the traditional Hawaiian way. We do not need the high-fat modern foods that were never Hawaiian to begin with. For example, most modern day painas have deep-fried foods (such as fried ehieken or crispy wun-tun), a very un-Hawaiian category of foods. Hawaiians never fried their foods! How do we know this? No frying pans in the old days, of course.

Baking or steaming (lawalu) in the imu were far superior ways of cooking and delicious too. Cooking lawalu style is an excellent alternative to frying ehieken or fish. Poi, of course, was at the center of the diet in traditional times but nowadays is quite expensive and scarce. It is important to keep in mind that whole starchy food, such as poi or kalo (taro), should be the main dish. 'Uala (sweet potato) and uhi (yams) are traditional foods that are a natural for the holidays. You owe it to yourself to try them plain — without all the brown sugar — because they are delicious just as they are. If poi is unavailable, an example of analternative whole starchy food from another culture is brown rice or baked potato. This, of course, is the traditional American and Japanese or Chinese equivalent to poi, but today they are comparatively less expensive. Any of these traditional foods will contribute to your health. Greens were a big part of traditional eating. Simple steamed lu'au leaf or steamed vegetables of any kind are delicious to have with your meals. Lu'au leaf is particularly delicious. If you've never used ho'i'o, (fern shoots) this is another delicious traditional food to try. If these vegetables are not available, broccoli or kale will do just fine.

You ean even have limu (seaweed) every day if you want, just by learning how to use the easily available dried Japanese limu in the supermarket. Just remember to stay away from oil in salad dressing, the butter, the cream sauce, and the mayonnaise, all of whieh are 85 to 100 percent fat. These were never part of the Hawaiian way of eating. For dessert, have whole fruits for a change. If you must have something fancy, remember that all the elements of haupia were present in ancient Hawai'i, including the coconut, the sugar eane, and the pia (arrowroot). Just go easy on eating coconut because of its high fat content. I hope these ideas will inspire you to make true Hawaiian painas at your home this holiday season. The Wai'anae diet manual has a few starter recipes. If you ean even use one or two traditional Hawaiian dishes regularly at your table, you will be contributing to the movement to restore the health of the Hawaiian people. Even more, you ean make every celebration a tribute to our ancestors. Dr. Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is the director of preuentiue medicine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensiue Health Center. A majority of its board and its 18,000 clients are of natiue Hawaiian ancestry.