Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 6, 1 Iune 2006 — Modern changes afflict traditional food sources [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Modern changes afflict traditional food sources

Kalo (taro) is the traditional staple food of Native Hawaiians. Lo'i kalo (taro fields) onee covered extensive areas on all islands, and the daily backbreaking work of planting, tending and harvesting the lo'i has always been an endeavor honored by all Hawaiians. For hundreds of years, the nutrients in kalo, poi and lā'au (taro leaves) produced tall, strong and healthy Hawaiians. However, to Hawaiians, kalo is more than merely something to eat; it is a kinolau (body form) of the great god Kāne, the giver of life. And kalo also represents the origin of Hawaiians as told in the mo'olelo of Hāloa, son of Wākea and Papa. During the rest of 2006, we anticipate another poi shortage, due not only to the reduced number of acres devoted to lo'i kalo, but because the huge

rainstorms in March and April flooded the few commercially productive lo'i. The flooding changed the environment in the lo'i, and the kalo will struggle against a number of plant diseases this year. Kalo farmers will work harder to produce kalo, Kāne's life-sustaining gift, but poi will be in very short supply for Hawaiians. Reef fish were the preferred protein food in the traditional Hawaiian diet. Early Hawaiians even raised ehoiee reef fish in large fishponds, built by enclosing the oeean shallows along protected shorelines within stone walls. These ingeniously engineered ponds assured fish for almost every meal that the Hawaiian ancestors consumed. But today, eating Hawai'i's reef fish may adversely affect your heakh, due to ciguatera poisoning. The ciguatera toxin is produced in fish after they consume tiny organisms called microalgae, whieh often "hloom" after large storms such as we recently had in Hawai'i. Heavy rains wash runoff from the land onto reefs surrounding

the islands, providing nutrients on whieh the microalgae thrive. Reef fish eat limu (seaweed) to whieh the microalgae are attached, and the fish produce the poisonous ciguatoxin, whieh is concentrated primarily in the head, viscera (gut), and roe (eggs) of the fish. Larger predatory reef fish (barracuda, grouper and snapper) that eat smaller ciguatoxin-containing reef fish also heeome infected with ciguatera. The real problem is that nothing destroys ciguatera toxin - not cleaning, cooking, freezing or drying. Because it affects the nervous, digestive and cardiovascular systems, people who eat fish carrying ciguatoxin experience a wide variety of symptoms, including diarrhea, weakness, aching muscles or joints, nausea and vomiting, as well as neurological symptoms like itching; headache; dizziness, numbness or tingling around the mouth, hands or feet; and even the sensation that hot things feel cold or cold feels hot. The symptoms ean be mild or severe, depending on the amount of

ciguatoxin consumed. In addition, these effects heeome more severe with future exposures. Neurological symptoms may worsen with exercise, aleohol consumption or high protein diets. Occasionally, low blood pressure, respiratory depression and eoma develop in ciguatera patients. Death is rare, but ean occur. A recent eall to the Department of Heahh resulted in a warning not to eat reef fish anywhere in Hawai'i without testing for the presence of ciguatoxin. A testkit for ciguatera is available, costing about five dollars per test. The test is the only way to be certain about the safety of eating any fish that you catch. It is devastating to anticipate a season when our culturally preferred foods will be greatly reduced in availability, if they are available at all. And whatever product makes it into the market will cost more. Even more distressing is that there is no known way to correct these situations to prevent even more traditions of the Hawaiian culture from ending forever.

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OLAKINO • YDUR HEALĪH

By Claire Ku'uleilani Hughes, Dr. PH„ R.D.