Where indigenous peoples continue to practice traditional diets, there is virtually no diabetes. The devastating effect on personal health and culture of diabetes or glucose intolerance syndromes on native peoples is now being experienced among peoples of European origin. Diabetes is a metabolic dis-order emblematic of the physical social, psychological and spiritual disruption of the metabolism of daily life among many native peoples. Refined foods such as flour and sugar, canned foods that are denatured, a sedentary lifestyle and stress has produced t profound disruption to healthy bodies and minds of aboriginal people, resulting in an epidemiology of pathological conditions leading to early mortality, disability, and dysfunction. The role of stress, the metropolitan diet and the lack of physical exercise are increasingly recognized as central causative factors to this thoroughly preventable disease.
Research suggests that authentic foods and medicines bring balance to the body, mind and spirit.
Health practitioners and Native peoples living on reserves and in urban communities, however, frequently do not generally turn to traditional foods and medicines nor do they necessarily possess the knowledge to make appropriate diet changes. There are over 1500 plants with hypoglycemic and anti-diabetic properties many of them indigenous to the North American continent and specifically the Anishnabek and Haudenosaunee territories. Our symposium and workshop learning will utilize a pedagogy focusing on the kitchen, food selection, preparation techniques, nutrition, the appropriate use of supplements, stress reduction and specialized massage techniques to enhance circulation in people with diabetes or individuals susceptible to diabetes. Each participant will have the opportunity to learn their blood type and to take their blood glucose levels. The two-way symposium is open to the public and will be extensively advertised in the Native community of Toronto and surrounding First Nation communities and will present an overview of the issues, from research to practice, with opportunities for personal exchange, sharing and learning new skills and remembering old knowledge.