Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 1, 1 January 1992 — ʻAi Pono, E Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

>•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••■••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••■••••••• • • • • •_•_• •••••• (This eolumn is open to all OHA Trustees as a vehicle for them to express their mana'o. Opinions expressed are those of the individual Trustees and do not necessarily represent the official position of the OHA Board of Trustees.)

You ean eat ono and lose weight too

On Saturday morning, Jan. 25 several Hawaiians who were on insulin for diabetes and now have normal blood sugars without any medications will be speaking. You will also hear them talk about how they lost

weight without counting calories. These Wai'anae Diet Program participants and I will be doing a free presentation about how you ean do the same on the windward side of O'ahu at Ben Parker School. Call the American Diabetes Association at 841-3997 for the exact time and plaee. Everyone is weleome. We hope that this is an inspiration to others who may have diabetes or just want to lose a few pounds. Why is this so important? According to modern statistics, pure Hawaiians die of diabetes at a rate of 588 percent higher than all other races in the U.S. The irony of these statistics is that the answer to this grave problem may be in the foods that Hawaiians ate for centuries. The Wai'anae Diet Program has demonstrated a dramatic reduction in the requirement of insulin for individuals with diabetes. Three months ago in phase two of the Wai'anae Diet Program, two participants who were taking over 60 units of insulin eliminated their need for any diabetes medication in just three weeks. In fact, we had to cut their diabetes medications by as mueh as half on the first day. How is such a rapid result possible? It is caused by the many excellent qualities of a traditional Hawaiian diet. Diabetes type II, whieh is the type that most

commonly afflicts Hawaiians, is caused by the ineffectiveness of insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that allows sugar to move from the bloodstream into the body's cells. Overweight and too mueh fat in the diet causes the insulin to be less effective than it should be. The result is that too mueh sugar is left in the bloodstream causing high blood sugar whieh is the hallnwk of diabetes. High blood sugar eventually causes blood vessels to be plugged causing heart attacks, gangrene, eye problems and kidney failure. It also causes nerves to malfunction. The traditional Hawaiian diet as presented in the Wai'anae Diet Program reverses diabetes in four ways. First, without limiting the amount of food, it causes an automatic reduction in caloric intake. We demonstrated that even if you eat as mueh traditional Hawaiian food on the Wai'anae Diet way, ealone intake is reduced. This immediately reduces some of the requirement for insulin and causes better blood sugar control. Second, it is very low in fat. Studies done on the effect of different foods on blood sugar have demonstrated that insulin seems to work better when a low fat diet is eaten. Traditional Hawaiian food is about 75 percent lower in fat compared to the amount most Americans are used to eating. Third, it is high in fiber. Studies have shown that fiber slows the absorption of sugar and starches. This makes the blood sugar levels more moderate and takes away the extreme highs and lows in blood sugar levels. Fourth, traditional Hawaiian foods seem to be protected against diabetes just by the very nature of the foods themselves. This special quality of certain traditional foods was demonstrated by researchers in Australia*

and reported in the Amenean Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1987. In that study, it was shown that traditional bush foods of the Aborigines and Pacific Islanders were superior to commonly used American foods in terms of their effect on blood sugar. For example, ulu (breadfruit) raised the blood sugar approximately 14 percent less than potatoes, kalo (taro) about 32 percent less, and 'uala (sweet potato) about 45 percent less than regular potatoes. They concluded that one of the reasons for the high rates of diabetes among Pacific Islanders was the change from their healthy traditional foods to modern fatty Western foods. This, or course, is one of the conclusions of the Wai'anae Diet Program as well. Moreover, we took this a step further and demonstrated that diabetes could be reversed by eating such foods. Don't forget, that if you are ill, on medication, or taking drugs or aleohol do not attempt the Wai'anae Diet without consulting your physieian. If you would like to leam more, eome to the free lecture on Jan. 25 whieh will be part of an American Diabetes Association program, or you ean purchase a Wai'anae Diet Manual for $9.75 by calling 696-7081. See you there. *Thorburn, AW, Brand JC, Truswell AS. "Slowly digested and absorbed carbohydrate in traditional bushfoods: a protective factor aga'inst diabetes?" Am J Clin Nutr 1987; 45:98-106. Dr Terry Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is the director of preuentiue medicine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensiue HeaHh Center. A majority of its 1 7,000 clients and its board are of Naiiue Hawaiian ancestry.