Aboriginal diet and nutrition

[Okwes]

Aboriginal diet and nutrition
www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Aboriginal_diet_and_nutrition?open


Before white settlement, Aboriginal people were hunter-gatherers who
foraged for uncultivated plants and hunted wild animals. The traditional
diet was high in carbohydrates, protein and nutrients, and low in fat
and sugars. It seems that diet-related diseases, such as cardiovascular
disease and diabetes, were uncommon. However, modern Aboriginal diets
are heavily Westernised and tend to be high in fat and sugar, but low in
carbohydrate, fibre and nutritional value. The rate of cardiovascular
disease and diabetes is now exceptionally high in the indigenous
population.

Traditional diet or bush food The typical traditional diet was low
kilojoule and high in carbohydrate, fibre, protein and nutrients. Since
Aboriginal people were hunter-gatherers, the daily diet varied according
to the type of plants and animals available in the particular location
and season. By necessity, they had an extensive knowledge of plants,
animals, the land and the effects of the weather and time of year.
Popular energy- dense foods, or foods that contained plenty of
kilojoules per gram, included animal meat and offal, honey, and insects
such as witchetty grubs. Women tended to gather the foods for everyday
eating such as plants, reptiles and honey, while men hunted for land and
marine animals. Most foods were eaten raw, but some were roasted or
baked. Children were typically breastfed until three years of age, and
introduced to solid foods once their teeth had come through. The
hunter-gatherer lifestyle also meant plenty of physical activity.

Dietary changes during white settlement Once the Europeans arrived, the
traditional Aboriginal diet shifted to include Western foods such as
flour, sugar and processed meat. Indigenous people on cattle stations or
government settlements had fewer opportunities to forage for food, and
tended to rely more and more on European staples. The typical Aboriginal
diet started to lack essential nutrients. Protein, vitamin and mineral
deficiencies were common. European settlement meant the introduction of
animals and plants foreign to Australia, reduced access to land and an
increase in bush fires, which further hindered the indigenous people's
ability to gather and hunt for food in traditional ways.

Modern-day diet and nutrition The typical Aboriginal diet today is high
kilojoule, low in nutritional value, and high in fats and sugar. There
is no need to hunt and forage for food, so physical activity levels are
generally low. Surveys show that urban-dwelling indigenous people eat
more fast food and salt than non-indigenous people. Living in remote
outback communities reduces the range of foods available, particularly
fresh fruit and vegetables. Indigenous people of the Northern Territory
consume more sugar, white flour and carbonated soft drinks than the
Australian average. The typical modern Aboriginal diet, whether city or
country, is especially low in vitamin C, calcium and magnesium.

Diet-related diseases Diet has been linked to a number of diseases and
disorders among the Australian indigenous population, including:

Cardiovascular disease
Diabetes
Overweight and obesity
High blood pressure
Some cancers
Circulatory diseases
Stroke.
Where to get help
Your doctor

Victorian Aboriginal Health Service Co-op Ltd Tel. [phone] Things
to remember The traditional Aboriginal diet was high in carbohydrates,
protein and nutrients, and low in fat and sugars. Modern Aboriginal
diets, for both city and country dwellers, are high in fat, sugar and
salt, and low in nutritional value. Diet has been linked to a number of
disorders among the Australian indigenous population including obesity,
diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

[Okwes]

Native Diet & Diabetes:
www.cbc.ca/news/background/food/foodstories.html

When your fishing buddies are from the Haida Nation, a great catch is as
good as guaranteed, but for Dr. Jay Wortman, there's more than pride in
the 15 kilos of fine spring salmon he's landed. To him, it holds the
answer to the rising tide of diabetes in aboriginal communities.

"The aboriginal diabetes epidemic is the biggest, most serious health
issue that confronts aboriginal communities across the whole country,"
Wortman says.

Wortman is a physician whose work includes speaking to First Nations
people, including those on the Musqueam Reserve in Vancouver, about
health, but it's much more personal.

"I'm Métis from northern Alberta, and both my grandparents, my mother's
parents had diabetes. My mother has diabetes. Some of her siblings have
diabetes, and about 14 months ago, I realized that I had diabetes," he
says.

Until then, he and his wife loved chocolate and candy and other sugary,
starchy foods. He worked long hours at a stressful job and rarely
exercised. Now with his vision blurring, his blood pressure and blood
sugar soaring, Wortman faced a crisis.

"Because I have a knowledge of diabetes – diabetes is a disorder of
blood sugar, your blood sugar is too high my immediate instinctive
response was to stop eating any food that causes your blood sugar to
rise. So I basically right away eliminated carbohydrates from my
diet….In four weeks, I lost 18 pounds. My blood sugars normalized, my
blood pressure became normal, and I felt much better," Wortman says. "I
don't know if you're ever not diabetic, but I think for me, I've been
able to reverse the effects of diabetes through diet."

Before 1945, diabetes was almost unknown among natives in Canada, but
as people switched from a low-carbohydrate diet of caribou and seal,
from fish and shell fish and berries to refined carbohydrates, obesity
and type 2 diabetes followed as surely as it has among all Canadians.
But why do First Nations people have three to five times the rate of the
general population and why are native children developing a disease that
normally hits adults?

Wortman fingers evolution.

"In evolutionary terms, it's a blink of an eye. Aboriginal people have
been transformed over a hundred years or 200 years, very few numbers of
generations, from a completely different way of life to what we
experience today, and diet has dramatically changed for that
population," he says. "And that very small period of time, there's no
possible way their physiology could evolve to cope with such a big
change in something like diet."

So Wortman has become an advocate of a return to the traditional, very
low carbohydrate diet. His family dines on salad and green vegetables,
on cheese and berries and cream, on chicken and fish and meat.

So when he dines with aboriginal people, the meal becomes a prop, part
of the lesson about returning to their traditional diet.

"The potatoes, good food, right? No. Not a good food. Believe it or
not, if you eat potato, your blood sugar shoots up faster than if you
eat pure white table sugar," he says.

Wortman says nutritionists don't like his advocacy of what is very close
to the Atkins Diet. So he and some colleagues are designing a study.
They want to put a First Nations community on a traditional diet and
check the results. But personally, he has no doubts: aboriginal people
are designed to eat the way their ancestors did.