Aloha Spirit and the Hawaiian Diet

The Aloha Spirit


Aloha Health and the Native Hawaiian Diet

What the early Hawaiians knew, today's visitors to the islands are now discovering: the native diet of indigenous plants, fruits and fish is among the healthiest in the world.

Resurgence of interest in the native Hawaiian diet began back in 1989 when Dr. Terry Shintani pioneered some studies focusing on weight loss at the O’ahu Wai’anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, discovering in the process that native foods had some surprising health benefits.

The results of the study using the Hawaiian diet included lowered blood pressure, natural weight loss and for diabetics, even a reduced need for their daily insulin.

All of this on a non-low-carb diet—which raised eyebrows amongst diet trend followers.

"When you consider that the slimmest people in the world--the Chinese, Japanese, Philippinos--are on a 75% carb diet, and they're still slim,” says Dr.Shintani, who holds degrees in Public Health from Harvard, as well as a law degree, then how good is the theory that carbs make you fat?"

After the modern "junk food" diet was introduced in Hawaii, Dr. Shintani says, native Hawaiians have had obesity problems and other health issues, but when they went back to the native diet, these problems begin to be alleviated.

"Some people say, 'Well, it's genetic.' And there's a genetic component, but if it was all in the genes, then 200 years ago, when the genes were pure--because most of the Hawaiian blood is now mixed--there should have been more obesity, if it was all in the genes. But if you look at the old pictures, there was hardly any obesity in Hawaii, in the old days."

"So then you have to come to the conclusion that it isn't all in the genes; it has to be something that's changed. And, of course, the thing that's changed mainly is the diet."

"It's a very interesting lesson in what happens when you change diets to a modern junk-food diet, and then see what happens when you change it back to an ancient, more whole food diet. If you look at traditional cultures everywhere and they turn to a modern diet, they start becoming overweight and diabetic and so forth."

"Hawaii today is a multi-cultural society, so then I created what is known as 'the Hawaii diet,' rather than the traditional Hawaiian diet, meaning made up of the modern mix of multi-cultural flavors, now including brown rice and pasta, potatoes and oatmeal, and foods that are much more familiar, and we got the same result. I mean we got people to reduce their cholesterol and lose weight."

"The Hawaii diet is extremely practical because anyone can do it. We had Mediterranean food on it, stew, chili, burritos, Chinese food, Japanese food, Thai food, Philippino and Hawaiian. We had all of those foods on the program, but they're all based on their traditional way that it was done."

Dr. Shintani published the traditional Hawaiian diet study in 1991 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Since then, interest in the Hawaiian diet has prompted many to take another look at the value of native Hawaiian foods, and in 1993, Ka’anapali Beach Hotel on Maui offered the diet to its employees who did so well on it that the cuisine was soon featured on the hotel’s restaurant menus.

Says KBH Chef Thomas Muromoto, who makes creative use of local items like pohole fern, native fish cooked in ti leaves, ogo salad, sweet Maui onion, the Hawaiian purple sweet potato, and taro, among many other locally grown ingredients, "Our Native Hawaiian Combination is a big meal…Amazingly, there are no limits to the amount of complex carbohydrates you can eat—and with no ill effects."

Poi, an important staple of the early Hawaiian diet, could be called “the most perfect food,” Chef Muromoto says, “for its high protein, low fat content, and perfect digestibility."

A new twist in the modern preparation of traditional favorites includes the use of leaves from the Hawaiian ti tree as a sort of natural aluminum foil which, when wrapped around an entrée during the cooking process, serves to keep the juices and flavors in.

For more information on the Hawaii Diet, see The Hawaii Diet:



For recipes you can use at home, see Dr. Shintani’s Hawaii Diet Cookbook:



The Aloha Spirit-Hawaiian Diet