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Nutritionist uses medicine wheel to illustrate dietary problems
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
Jan.12,2003
Posted to NDN AIM by ErthAvengr
RAPID CITY - Nutritionist Kibbe McGaa Conti has looked into her own American
Indian past to solve a modern dietary problem among Indians.
Conti has developed an alternative to the traditional "food pyramid" with a
simple, yet radically different, theory of what Indians should eat.
It is a medicine wheel, the basis of much of the Northern Plains tribal
culture. The wheel features four sections colored white, yellow, red and
black. The colors represent the four directions, the four races of mankind,
four natural elements, the four seasons, and four parts of the life cycle
among other images.
Conti, a dietitian since 1994, was born in South Dakota and raised in
Minnesota. Her first name, pronounced "kibbee," was taken from her
grandmother's last name, and she is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux
Tribe.
"I came to South Dakota to intern (as a nutritionist) and chose Indian
Country in part because of the scarcity of Native American nutritionists in
South Dakota," Conti said. She worked five years for Indian Health Service
and is now a private consultant for various health programs on reservations
in South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana. She has also offered the food
wheel to Navajo and Alaska native tribal-health officials.
Local tribes, with financial help from the federal government, have launched
diabetes and obesity prevention programs. Tribal health officials estimate
that between 50 percent and 60 percent of all reservation adults older than
45 have been diagnosed with diabetes. Indian children as young as 13 are
being diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes, according to recent reports.
Fourteen of every 100 children surveyed on the Pine Ridge Reservation are at
high risk for diabetes, according to health educators there.
Conti believes Indians have changed their eating habits over the past 50
years and are now suffering the consequences.
"There is an imbalance right now with diabetes, obesity and substance abuse,"
Conti said. "We often look to our traditions and culture to restore balance.
We are finding balance, or `wicozani,' through our tradition."
Mark St. Pierre of the Pine Ridge Chamber of Commerce counts one large
full-blown grocery store, two smaller grocery stores and about 10 convenience
stores on the Pine Ridge Reservation. St. Pierre said the businesses vary in
product lines, some leaning more toward groceries, and others leaning more
toward quick snacks.
Processed meats, sugared drinks and the lack of fresh produce have
contributed to nutrition problems on the reservations, Conti said.
St. Pierre said limited grocery services on the reservation likely have
contributed to changes in eating habits.
Conti gathered stories from tribal elders and learned as much as she could
about the eating habits of the pre-reservation-era tribes.
The four sections of the medicine wheel designate four food types — water,
meat, gathered plants and cultivated plants. A balanced plate of food
contains these four components, with none dominating the plate.
You won't find pop, hot dogs or potato chips on Conti's food wheel.
"The West Power is represented by water, the life-giving substance for all
living things. Water was and is the basis for all of our drink," Conti said.
"It gave us good health."
The strength and endurance of the buffalo represents the North Power, Conti
said.
"Up to the late 1800s, there was an abundance of superior-quality buffalo
meat and other game," Conti said. "The health of the buffalo is related to
the health of Plains tribes."
Conti represents that aspect with lean animal foods.
The East Power incorporates springtime. Conti identifies emerging plants and
gathered fruits and vegetables as the nutrition of this section.
The summer growing season and cultivated plants represent the South Power.
"The cultivated plants, corn, beans, potato and squash were grown in the
summer," Conti said. "Today the south direction includes these starchy
vegetables and the grains that were adopted."
Early reservation nutrition was better than the past 50 years, Conti said.
From the 1880s to the 1940s, hunting, gardening and raising livestock were
common. New foods entered the Indian diet, such as dairy, beef, poultry, pork
and grain-based foods. Despite those changes in food types, diabetes and
obesity were still rare, Conti said.
People continued to live off the land and honored the four lessons of the
medicine wheel. Their drinks were free of sugar and alcohol. Their meats were
lean. Fruits and vegetables were still gathered and raised, and grains and
starchy foods were in balance, Conti said.
Beginning in the 1950s, more processed food, high in sugar and fat, found its
way to the reservations. "Our foods have less protein and naturally occurring
nutrients than before," she said. "Our bodies have not adapted to large
amounts of these foods, available so frequently, which is what drives the
level of blood sugar and insulin."
Binge drinking increased, as did fast-food eating. "The nutrients changed,
and we haven't adjusted to the diet," Conti said.
Conti's food model attempts to redirect eating habits toward an earlier
foodway. Essentially, the plan recommends lean meats, fruits and vegetables,
modest amounts of starches and water or a sugar-free drink.
"My hope is this will be the nutrition model for Northern Plains Indians,"
Conti said. "I hope to get it in the schools, with school lunch, especially."
Since Conti began showing the nutrition plan to agencies and tribal health
officials in 2002, several have purchased her materials.
Loneman School at Oglala has implemented some of the concepts into its lunch
program, adding leaner meats such as buffalo, controlling portions and
limiting starches.
Conti plans to expand her efforts in 2003. She has developed her curriculum
to teach young people to eat what their ancestors did. She is disseminating
her materials nationwide, and has speaking engagements in Montana, South
Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Arizona.
She said the model would have to be changed to adapt to regional differences
of the tribes of the eastern woodlands, the desert southwest and Alaska.
Conti will also begin teaching a nutrition class Jan. 20 at the Rapid City
campus of Oglala Lakota College. Although the class will focus on general
nutrition principles, she will use aspects of her model to illustrate various
lessons.
Black Hills State University and South Dakota State University also have
borrowed her model for use in nutrition research grants.
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