Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 11, 1 November 2010 — Cataluna on diabetes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cataluna on diabetes

/ I t's all right if you eat some sugar * * but don't go glut on it," says OHA Kaua'i-Ni'ihau Trustee Donald Cataluna, sharing mana'o about how he approaehes his diabetes. "It is very important to work with your doetor, and listen to what he says." Cataluna first learned he had Type 2 diabetes, the most eommon form, in 1976 during a physieal for a new job. The hidden disease showed no symptoms. He was told it was eontrollable and was given pills to take onee a day. Fourteen years later, he went to see a highly reeommended doetor on the Big Island. His diabetes was not getting any better and Cataluna was soon put on insulin. After living with diabetes for more than three deeades, Cataluna says that people tend to think it is expensive to eat healthier foods. But that doesn't have to be the ease. Get a salad instead of fries, he says. Tofu, ehieken and veggies ean be affordable. "You got to wateh what you eat," he says. "You have to exereise and you have to take your shots. Don't eat food high in sugar, glueose sugar. Eat vegetables." For Cataluna, the Hawai'i Diet by Dr. Terry Shintani, has been a key resouree to learning how to eat better. But Cataluna takes it one step further. "We have a vegetable garden," he says. "Using herbs to season your food is better for you than seasoning with salt," he says. "We have green onion, Maui onion, lettuee, eabbage, herbs, and my wife started a kalo pateh. If we ean do it, you ean too." — Francine Murray