Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 2, 1 February 1993 — ʻAi pono, e ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi pono, e ola

Eat right and live well

by Dr. Terry Shintani

Key to a naiion

In this year of the recognition of the Centennial of the Overthrow, it is crucial to remember that the key to any nation is the health of its people. While we raise the consciousness of the world about the iniustices of the overthroww we must all pay attention to our own heakh.

What good will any solution to the injustices be if the people are ill, dying or dead? What good will sovereignty be if there are no people to be sovereign? Some advocates of Hawaiian health say that when the land is restored heahh with follow. I firmly believe that the reverse is also true. I believe that when the heahh is restored, spiritual, mental, emohonal, and physical, then the land and all else will follow. When there is pono inside, pono is outside. Moreover, if the heahh of the people is not restored, I believe that even if the land is returned in some form. there will be polhieal battles that will diminish mueh of the benefit to the people. As I have discussed in most of my recent articles, one of the most important things you ean do to restore your heahh is to change your diet. I say this because over 70 percent of us are dving of diet-related diseases. What's also important is

the effect of diet on behavior and performance at work and at school. When I changed my diet, my grades in school improved dramatically. In 1979, a study reported in "Journal of Learning Disabilities" 12;42, that young people who had a history of stealing stopped doing so when they changed their diet. Also in 1979, a Portuguese prison had inmates change diet; the prison administrator reported that there were less behavior problems, resulting in early release of these individuals. He stated that "There is a great difference in them, especially in those who have left the prison." In 1981, the Seibu Lions, a baseball team in Japan, were in last plaee. The team changed its diet and became champions for the next two years.

Imagine if a whole nation changed its eating habits. Imagine the impact on all of us if our children performed better in school if our leaders were more harmonious, if there was less crime, and if all of us could perform even better than we do now at our jobs and community service. No one should wait to begin restoring their own health because there is good reason to believe that diet will help in all these areas. Eat more taro, poi,

and foods that are similar in food value such as brown rice, potatoes, and other vegetables. One way to start would be to make a vow to eat even a small pieee of taro every January 17 until the injustices of the overthrow are redressed. Making this a private or public ritual will serve a very powerful purpose. The eating of a sacred food to commemorate an event and to symbolize solidarity among a people is a secret spiritual weapon. It is used to propagate Christianity in the eommunion ceremony when people eat bread as the body of Christ. It is used by the Jewish people to eommemorate passover when they eat matzos or unleavened bread to remember when the Jewish people were spared by the Lord. These ideas have been remembered for a millenium as a result of these rituals. I believe that if enough Hawaiians eat kalo (taro) every January 17, the injustices of the overthrow will remain in people's minds until appropriate redress is made. And don't forget to continue to eat well throughout the year with the health of everyone in

mind. If you do so diligently, your health and performance will improve. In addition, someone will follow your example and you will have done a great favor to that person as well. In this way, the health of the people ean be gradually restored so that when any redress of the injustices arrive, there will be a healthy nation of people to bene-

fit from it and to carry on for generations to eome. Dr. Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is the director of preventive medicine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. A majority of its 20,000 clients are of Hawaiian ancestry.