Culture as a source of health

[Mike__M]

Tribal clinic uses native foods to fight diabetes

Built, administered and owned by American Indians, Potawot is at the front line of a national resurgence among native peoples to address the link between the loss of ancestral native foods and disproportionate rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases.

In Northern California and elsewhere, access to native foods has become both an environmental and human rights issue. Karuk elders recall eating salmon three times a day. They also relied on eel, freshwater mussels, Indian rhubarb and acorns to which they now have limited access, said Kari Marie Norgaard, a sociologist at the University of Oregon.

“Every native tribe has a story about what happened to their food system,” said Kibbe Conti, a native dietitian and a nutritionist at the Indian Health Service Hospital in Rapid City, S.D. In the northern Great Plains, for instance, the Sioux hunted for buffalo, fished and collected wild rice. After reservations were established, however, they grew dependent on flour, salt pork, low-grade beef and pork, sugar, and other government rations.

As an alternative to the classic American food pyramid, Conti has developed a nutritional “medicine wheel” that emphasizes traditional lean protein like bison and once-primary beverages like fresh water and tea.

“We’re not going to completely rebuild the traditional food system,” Conti said. “But there is wisdom there we can apply.”

http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/tribal-clinic-uses-native-foods-fight-diabetes-15533#.Vm3_b3fRbtg.facebook

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