Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 7, 1 July 1988 — ʻAi Pono, E Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi Pono, E Ola

~ • • • - • --- ••-••• • • - - Control Cholesterol in 30 Daus

By Dr. Terry Shintani, M.D.

One day, 1 saw a member of the Wai'anae coast family eome to our emergency room with familiar symptoms. He had crushing chest tightness, tingling in his left arm and shortness of breath. We made the diagnosis, got him on the MAST helicopter and rushed him to

Queen's Hospital but he died there thrēe days later. What he had was the same disease that kills nearly 40 percent of all Americans and even more native Hawaiians. He was having a heart attack. Although heart disease is the number one killer of native Hawaiians, there was one simple thing he could have done to reduce his risk of dying of this disease to almost zero. And it could have taken as little as 30 days to accomplish it. As you may have guessed from the title of this article, that one thing he could have done was to control his cholesterol. In another article in this issue, Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell describes why this will prevent heart attacks. In this article, I will provide some tips on how you ean do this. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recently has revised its guidelines to help deal with cholesterol. They now recommend that every adult should be tested for serum cholesterol. They further recommend that those with a cholesterol level 200 or greater should attempt to lower their eholesterol with a good nutrition plan. This level is even lower than previously recommended. In fact, in the largest study of heart disease and cholesterol at Harvard University, no one with a cholesterol level lower than 150 died of a heart attack. Other studies show that cholesterol ean be decreased from 240 down to 155 by diet in as little as 30 days. How ean we do this for ourselves? Eating a low cholesterol, low fat, high fiber diet is the cornerstone of a cholesterol lowering plan. The traditional Hawaiian way of eating as presented by the Moloka'i Diet is a good example of such a diet. In fact there are many foods from practically every culture that are cholesterol-lowering foods. One thing to remember to determine what is a low cholesterol food is to recognize that no plant-type food has any cholesterol. Cholesterol is strictly an animal product. It is found in red meat, fowl, dairy food and egg yolks. Even seafood has cholesterol although fish have certain oils that have some protective effect against cholesterol. A second thing to remember is t{iat saturated fat tends to raise cholesterol levels. These fats are found in large amounts in meats and

the skin of chickens and other fowl. Third, dietary fiber tends to bind some cholesterol and prevent some of it from being absorbed. Fiber is found in high concentrations in foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables. It is absent in meats, eggs and dairy foods. Kalo (Taro) is a good example of a food that is a cholesterol-lowering food. It is free of cholesterol, low in fat, and high in fiber. The following is a recipe for preparing kalo provided by the staff of the 'Opelu Project and Ka'ala Farm Project, two community-based social-economic development projects in Wai'anae. Kalo is still being grown in traditional lo'i (patches) at Ka'ala. Preparing Kalo for Eating The old style of cooking kalo was by steaming in the imu (underground oven). However, kalo is usually prepared by boiling in a pot these days. What You Need 1. A covered pot large enough to hold the kalo. 2. Enough water to cover the kalo. 3. A knife or fork. 4. A bowl of cold water. 5. Kalo (corms) either grown by you or purchased from the loeal markets. What To Do 1. Cut the stem off the kalo (corm) and scrub lightly to remove the dirt and roots. Leave the skin on. 2. Plaee the larger kalo at the bottom of the pot; the smaller pieces eook faster so plaee them on top so that you ean remove them earlier. Cover the kalo with water. 3. Cover the pot. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Then turn the heat down to medium. 4. Continue cooking until you ean poke a knife or fork through the center of the kalo very easily (just like testing whether a potato is thoroughly cooked). BE CAREFUL: If you eat kalo that hasn't been cooked thoroughly you will have a very itchy mouth. 5. Remove the kalo from the pot. Put it into the cold water to eool it so that you ean hold it in your hand. When comfortable to hold, you ean then scrape the skin off with a dull knife or a spoon. T o Serve: Cut it up in slices or cubes and serve it warm or cold. By eating more low cholesterol, high fiber, low fat, foods and less high cholesterol, high saturated fat foods, we ean lower our cholesterol in as little as 30 days. We ean practically eliminate our chances of winding up in the emergency room with chest pain and dying of a heart attack. And we ean reduce our risk of dying of the number one killer of Hawaiian people.