M ay 8. 2013
^nrtlanb (Observer
Wisdom
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 11
is only 60-years-old, Anderson said, in large
part due to diabetes and associated ailments,
obesity and poor diet. Anderson’s father
and both grandmothers had diabetes, and
now he is among those at risk of the disease.
Most people and most health profession
als believed that once you developed diabe
tes, you were stuck with it. However, in a
series of studies— Dr. Neal Barnard, founder
and president of Washington D.C.-based
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medi
cine (PCRM), reveals it is possible to reverse
type 2 diabetes as well as repair insulin
function, control blood sugar and reducing
the need for medication.
The cure is a low-fat vegan diet.
control, cholesterol reduction, weight con
trol, and kidney function. Vegan and veg
etarian diets are consistently associated with
lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, and
being overweight, another PCRM scientific
review stated.
The Food for Life program rejects pro
cessed and animal-based foods including
meat, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy and in
stead promotes a “power plate” built on
whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruits.
PHOTO BY CARI HACHM ANN/THE PORTLAND OBSERVER
Marc Anderson, 60, a descendent o f Oklahoma Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs, shops at a local produce market to keep with
his recently discovered low-fat diet. H e’s replaced fatty, sugary processed foods with high- nutrient foods Native communities
once harvested like corn, beans, vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains.
Am ericans’ unhealthy microwave and
drive-through diet of fatty, sugary processed
foods has replaced the low- fat and high-
nutrient foods Native communities once
harvested like com, beans, vegetables, fruits,
nuts and grains.
Before colonialism, Native ancestors never
had diabetes. But today the disease is poi
soning their descendants. According to the
Indian Health Service, American Indians and
Alaska Natives die of diabetes at a rate of 177
percent higher than other Americans.
Barnard and Caroline Trapp, PCRM ’s di
rector of diabetes education, developed a
nutrition program, Food for Life, specifically
to reverse Types 2 diabetes among Native
populations.
“Halting the alarming rate and progres
sion of diabetes among Native Americans
requires radical changes in lifestyle, with
changes in diet at the forefront,” said Trapp.
A PCRM study revealed participants on a
low-fat vegan diet showed dramatic improve
ment in four disease markers: blood sugar
Page 19
Anderson has been supporting the pro
gram, which uses food recipes from south
western Native chef and food historian, Lois
Ellen Frank, and Diñé chef Walter Whitewater
of the Navajo Nation, for the past year and a
half. He changed his diet to vegan a year ago,
though today, he eats salmon on occasion.
Three weeks into his new diet, Anderson
said he began to experience a change “in
taste buds and cravings, as well as a feeling
o f empowerment over your health, reduc
tions in blood sugar, cholesterol, weight and
blood pressure, and an improvement in self
esteem.” He lost 20 pounds.
As you become more aware and careful
about what you put in your body, Anderson
said, this also reduces the trend toward sub
stance abuse.
Anderson recommends Dr. B arnard’s
book Reversing Diabetes as a must for dia
betes prevention coordinators and for any
one interested in overcoming the disease.
The Food for Life program is ideal for
Native populations, said Anderson. Histori
cally, meat was a small part of the diet for
many tribes. He said a plant-based diet not
only improves health, but ties into food
sovereignty, allowing Natives to reclaim their
health and traditions at the same time.
“Because many tribal communities don’t
have access to fresh produce, whole grains
and legumes, we must grow our own, and
that is the path to re-affirming the ancestral
ways of living with seasons and within natu
ral cycles,” said Anderson. “Surely this will
promote mental and spiritual health as well.”
Pills and shots were not traditional meth
ods for treating disease among Native cul
tures.
Indigenous people did not have a big
distinction between food and medicine, said
Anderson. “Food was the medicine,” said
Anderson, “Today we have two separate
entities— we need the medicine because the
food we eat is making us sick.”
Anderson has been trying out new reci
pes, and making cooking with plant-based
foods training videos with chefs Frank and
Whitewater. “We hope to disseminate cop
ies of a DVD to every Indian Health clinic in
the United States,” he said. They plan to
have copies dispersed to Native peoples as
well.
The trio will present cooking demonstra
tions at tribal communities and conferences
including the Native Foods and Health Sym
posium, April 26-27 at Muscogee (Creek)
Nation for the Mvskoke Food Sovereignty
Initiative.
“I believe we’re at the forefront of a great
transformation as we realize the wisdom of
our ancestors,” said Anderson, “And I hold
lots of hope that many will follow.”
“Returning to an ancestral plant-based
diet is a way to reclaim our health,” said
Frank, who has spent over 20 years docu
m enting the foods and life ways o f Native
Am erican com m unities throughout the
•Southwest. Her Food for Life recipes in
clude m eals like the Three S isters’ Sauté,
Tortillas de Mais, Blue Com Posole Mush,
and M ixed Berry and Apple Fruit C om
pote.
A vegan or vegetarian diet is not only
beneficial to humans; it’s more sustainable
than the average American meat-based diet,
according to a study in the American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition. A meat-based food
system requires more energy, land, and wa
ter resources than the lacto-ovo-vegetarian
(without meat) diet, the authors stated in the
report comparing both diets effects on the
environment.
Anderson is by no means a perfect eater,
but as he gets older, he said staying slim and
keeping his sugar levels down is important.
“What you eat is powerful,” he said.
Anderson concludes, “I believe that if we
can grow our own food, generate our own —
renewable energy, protect out natural re
sources and promote sustainable living, that
we will also benefit physically, emotionally,
spiritually and economically while becoming
connected to Mother Earth again.”