INDUSTRIALIZATION OF FOOD HAS BEEN THE DEATH BLOW TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

When talking to my friends at the Ticuna village along the Colombian Amazon, the fear they express, this time around from the Settlers from Europe, is the industrialization of the food available in the small cities surrounding them.

In Leticia, a small town in the Colombian Amazon and the capital of the province, there are shops devoted to selling Carbonated sugary beverages (and nothing else).

In my opinion, in North America, no one had to make such a dramatic change in their nutrition like the Native North American Indians.. From a pure diet, an organic diet, fresh fruits and vegetables and wild game and fish when available, they were forced by the Settlers into a dietary pattern of food of negligible or questionable nutrient value. 

Thus was born the Diseases of the Civilizations born among the Native Populations.

This is a SERIOUS problem and to me, the major problem facing the health of North American Native Indians.

I am going to give you a light hearted version of Nutrition of Others on the Natives.

Many of my patients (all of whom are native Americans) send photos of their food consumed and the blood sugar before and after. I make comments and guide them.

So, I received the news with some surprise that my patient was going to dinner at the Upscale Restaurant an hour or so away from his house.

He sent me the following photographs.

Blood sugar reading before dinner

Dinner: Lobster tail, shrimps, and crab claw plus starters. Iced Tea 

Blood sugar 2 hours later. Instead of Blood Sugar going up after a hefty dinner like that, it has actually gone down. You cannot use western medical logic to explain this. There is a reason, but we are not sure what it is.

Another Native American Indian, got a fright of his life when his blood sugars were remaining around 250 mg/dl all the time. With his wife who is an excellent cook, they made a dramatic change in their nutrition and began preparing food imitating their ancestors and the results were incredible!

Before dinner.. please observe the flat line of the blood sugar during the day

Dinner, much closer to what his ancestors used to eat, rather than the processed food most (57%) Americans (including most immigrants) and Native Americans eat.

Blood sugar does not rise after dinner. My feeling is that he has eaten what his ancestors would have eaten and the microbiome (the millions of bugs in our guts) are pretty happy with what they have gotten, do not produce any inflammation and do their job quickly!

Most Americans (native or not) cannot afford to eat like the first patient (on a regular basis) but almost ALL of my Native American Indian patients can make a good attempt at imitating the food of their ancestors before the settlers and immigrants came to this country they call The Turtle Island.