Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 3, 1 March 2000 — Traiitions relate to dental health [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Traiitions relate to dental health

Amoolelotalks about the food two young people ate when they sought shelter in Mānoa Valley: To escape their cruel stepmother, the twin siblings Kauakuahine and Kauawa'ahila fled to a cave beneath Kukao'o heiau. There, the brother and sister cultivated a patch of 'uala, ate grasshoppers and greens, such as tender pōpolo ( solanum nigrum, black nightshade), 'āheahea ( chenopodium alba),

pakai (amaranth or lambsquarter), laulele and palula (sweet potato leaves), whieh they cooked by rolling hot stones around amongst the greens in a covered gourd. The brother built a double imu with a kapu side for his food and a noa side for his sister. The cave they lived in was also divided into a kapu and a noa side. (This heiau, located on private properly in Mānoa, was recently reconstructed and stabilized.) It is clear that good food and good food habits, such as the daily consumption of ealeiumrich foods, like those eaten by the brother and sister, ean do mueh to assure the heahh of teeth and bones. Early Hawaiians were known to have excellent, strong teeth. They ate large quantities of cooked greens in addition to limu and seafood as well as the small bones of fish and fowl that were steamed soft in the imu. All of these foods are rich sources of dietary ealei-

um. Since poi and kalo made up a large portion of the traditional diet, these staples also became an important source of ealeium used for building strong teeth and bones. Hawaiian infants were nursed for the first years of life, giving them a good start. The bottle mouth syndrome of rotting front teeth we see so frequently today simply did not occur. Today, the smiles of Hawaiian children often reveal signs of tremendous destruction to their baby teeth. The teeth are capped with stainless steel crowns as an emergency measure to preserve what is left of decaying primary teeth and to protect against infection. This decay comes from the prolonged exposure of teeth to a variety of sugars and the acids they form in the mouth. Such extensive damage to primary teeth signals the beginning of a progression of a lifetime of poor dental heahh, dental pain and horrendous

future dental bills. Our ancestors practiced meticulous daily dental hygiene. Mary Kawena Pūku'i tells us that Hawaiians rubbed the surfaces of their teeth with wood ash or charcoal and rinsed with fresh or salt water. Cleaning teeth with Hawaiian salt appears to be a more recent practice. In the 1985 E Ola Mau Study, poor dental hygiene was identified as a major problem amongst Hawaiians. It is a most difficult dental heahh issue to address, as it involves both education and habit formation. Without a doubt, a great dietary difference between present day and early Hawaiians is the high consumption of beverages containing sugar, such as soda, juice drinks, syrup drinks, powdered beverages and beer, in addition to sticky sweet foods that are a constant at all hours. If too many sugar-containing foods are consumed in the absence of sufficient quantities

of kalo, greens, limu and fish bones, or their modern replacements of mild and other greens, dental caries, or cavities, result. Several nutrients ean either help or hinder the absorption of ealeium into the body. Of eoncern is the imhalanee between phosphorus and ealeium that our current liking for carbonated drinks and beer creates as high levels of phosphorous hinder the absorption of ealeium. In milk, phosphorus and ealeium are evenly balanced, whieh is ideal. By contrast, the ration of phosphorus to ealeium is five to one in soda and ten to one in beer. This imhalanee helps to speed tooth decay. You have read it in this eolumn numerous times: A return to the traditional diet ean help to alleviate many modern-day ills and help us regain the enviable heahh status our ancestors enjoyed. ■

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By Claire Hughes Dept. of Health