Hawaiians Find Better Health in Roots

Five years ago, Mary Vea was an overweight diabetic who carefully counted her calories and pricked herself with a needle of insulin twice a day.

“My lifestyle wasn’t too fun,” she said.

Now, she no longer needs insulin and has lost 50 pounds despite eating as much as she wants. Her remedy: A diet that has helped dozens of Native Hawaiians and offers hope for many on the mainland too.

Vea’s diet literally sent her back to her roots, stressing foods that her Hawaiian ancestors ate, including taro (a tuber), potatoes, poi (fermented taro starch), breadfruit, greens, bananas and small amounts of fish and chicken.

The Waianae Diet was created in 1989 by Harvard-educated nutritionist Dr. Terry Shintani, whose work has been enthusiastically endorsed by state health authorities.

“I’ve seen it happen. It works,” said Claire Hughes, chief of nutrition for Hawaii’s state Department of Health. The state funds part of the program and often recommends it to local doctors.

“Many physicians in Hawaii finally realize the benefits and readily allow patients to participate,” Hughes said.

The low-fat, high-fiber diet has helped combat two modern ailments--obesity and diabetes--that are killing many Native Hawaiians. Shintani said it also helps those suffering from heart disease and high cholesterol.

Initially, doctors were skeptical and worried when so many patients abandoned their medicine.

“Most physicians are now not only supportive but grateful there’s been some demonstration in the community that common everyday folks can do this,” Hughes said.

Over the last six years, more than 240 people in Hawaii have participated in the Waianae Diet, and about 60 have totally eliminated their medicines for problems related to diet, Shintani said. Others have reduced their medication.

Participants also lost an average of 17 pounds in the first 21 days, Shintani said.

Vea, a 40-year-old part-Native Hawaiian, said Shintani saved her life. She stopped taking her insulin shots just seven days after becoming his patient.

The problem was “she was just eating the wrong foods,” Shintani said.

Ho’oipo DeCambra, 51, one of the first Waianae Diet participants, is another success story. After 30 years of chronic kidney stone problems and the removal of part of a kidney, DeCambra said she hasn’t had any problems since going on the diet.

“This is the only way to be healthy,” said DeCambra, a part-Native Hawaiian who stands 6-feet-1 and weighs 283 pounds. She’s kept off about 40 pounds since 1989.

Unlike other diets that require great discipline to maintain, the Waianae Diet involves more than just eating properly.

“It’s a whole program, a physical program, a spiritual program and intellectual program,” DeCambra said.

Besides diet, the program incorporates self-help teachings from Hawaiian elders, Hawaiian healing massages and water-purification techniques. The diet has emerged amid a wave of activism and pride among Native Hawaiians, who have been pushing for Hawaiian sovereignty.

Native Hawaiians call it lokahi, which means to make peace and unity with the body, the mind, the earth and with all human beings.

“If we’re able to change our attitude, our behaviors, and get to a high spiritual level, we’ll grow in a way to heal ourselves for the rest of our lives,” DeCambra said.

One doctor called the cultural approach the key to the diet’s success.

“If a patient requests it, the elements of a traditional diet are very good,” said Dr. Richard Arakaki, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Hawaii. “When people are culturally sensitive, they may stay with a traditional diet longer. A long-lasting change is what they need.”