Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 5, 1 May 1989 — īAi Pono, EOla [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

īAi Pono, EOla

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

The Wai'anae Diet Program

Reducing the high rates of death among all Hawaiians is a dream of many people, myself included. But what if I were to tell you that this ean occur in a relatively short period of time. In this article, I will talk about why this is possible and what the> Wai'anao rnsi;t

community and the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center is doing about it. In recent articles, I and kauka Blaisdell have pointed out that the leading killer of all Americans in heart disease. We have also pointed out that among Hawaiians, that rate is 56% higher and that among pure Hawaiians, the death rate is 177% higher than that of the rest of Amenea. In the last two articles, I have described how cholesterol is directly related to heart disease and I outlined six steps to decreasing your cholesterol level within 30 days so that you ean decrease your risk of heart disease. But ean these changes be affected among large numbers of Hawaiians in a short period of time? The answer is this question is yes if other populations are any indication. The best example of this is the United States itself. Twenty years ago, 50% of all Americans died of heart disease. In 1982, that rate decreased to 38.2%. In 1987, the latest figures available, that rate has decreased to 35.8%. While some of this change is due to better medication and technology, experts agree that the majority of this change is due to the change in diet and lifestyle of the Ameriean people. If 20 years seems like a long time, consider the example of Norway during World War II. During the period 1938 to 1945, dietary fat consumption decreased due to wartime rationing. It reached its lowest level in 1944 and in the same year, heart disease fell to its lowest level, 30% lower as eompared to the decades before and after the war. And this change happened for all age groups from 40-year-olds to 60-year-olds to people over 80 years old. The exciting thing about this change is that it happened in less than six years. This is a short enough period to save the lives of many of our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunties, even some of our grandparents if we start now. The challenge is to do this for a large number of people in a short period of time. How ean we make this happen among the Hawaiian people? One approach is to work not only with individuals but with large groups of people. Last year I described how communities were helping communities when the Moloka'i eommunity had representatives share their experience with the "Moloka'i Diet Study" in the Wai'anae eommunity. The seeds planted at that time are about to bear fruit in the form of the Wai'anae Diet Program. This past month, members of the Wai'anae coast community have been meeting to establish the Wai'anae Diet Program based on the traditional Hawaiian diet. In this phase of the program, it is proposed that ten Hawaiian individuals be placed on the traditional Hawaiian Diet to demonstrate that the Hawaiian diet is a healthy one. The Wai'anae Diet Program is being designed by the "Wai'anae Diet Committee" whieh is formed under the auspices of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. The Wai'anae Diet Committee has been created to provide a means for input into the program and control over the information generated by the program in the hands of the community. Key members include Dr. Frances Sydow of Kahumanu Farm, who has offered the farm's facilities for food preparation and dining, and Ene Enos of

the Opelu Project, who has prepared a useful "Manual For Doing Things Hawaiian Style," on growing and gathering taro and other Hawaiian foods. Many other community members have also contributed their time and effort to this program. Claire Hughes, M.S., R.D. will be working with me to supervise this program. Helen 0'Connor, eoordinator of the Moloka'i Diet Program is serving as technical advisor and kauka Emmet Aluli and kauka Kekuni Blaisdell are serving as scientific advisors. In order to make this program one that represents Hawaiians taking charge of their own health, it is hoped that most of the resources for this program will eome from interested Hawaiian organizations and individuals. While the resources for this program are currently being provided by the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and Kahumana Farm, any co-sponsorship as well as any assistance with taro or other traditional Hawaiian food sources would be weleome, and would help to make the program even more successful. It is also hoped that this program will stimulate pride in Hawaiian tradition and help start a ehainreaction in other individuals and other eommunities to start similar health-promoting activities. In this way, steps toward the dream of restoring the good health of all Hawaiian people may be started in a relatively short period of time. If you would like to have more information about the Wai'anae Diet Program and how you ean help with this program, or if you have any information about food supply or individuals or organizations interested in co-sponsorship, please contact me at 696-7081. Terry Shintani, M.D., M.P.H., physician and nutritionist, is Director o/ Preuentiue Health Seruices at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensiue Health Center. A majorify of the health center's 17,000 clients are naiiue Hawaiian.