The Spirit of Aloha

The Aloha Spirit

The Aloha Spirit is what makes Hawaii so special. Based on native Hawaiian traditions of kindness, hospitality and living in harmony, Aloha is everywhere in Maui.

The Ka'anapali Beach Hotel exemplifies all of these traditions and more, combining them with the utmost in customer service where travelers are treated like family, and native Hawaiian culture and cuisine are part of your everyday experience.

From the moment visitors receive a welcoming lei made of the traditional kukui nuts, to the time of leaving, when hotel staff sings a song of farewell, the hotel is about Aloha.

The famous Ka'anapali beach is steps away, spectacular golfing is minutes from the front door, and especially delicious, healthy foods are on the menus, .

But more about KBH further on.

For more about the Hawaiian Diet, see The Hawaiian Diet blog

Photos courtesy of Ka'anapali Beach Hotel, Maui
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Aloha Harmony

The Aloha Spirit is the traditional Hawaiian way of life and is one of the main reasons people everywhere love to visit Hawaii.

The Aloha Spirit (alo-in the presence of; and ha-breath of life) means to be in harmony with life - with people and with the earth (aloha 'aina menas love of the land) with its natural beaches, mountains, rain forest, sea and gentle climate where kindness, respect and appreciation are basic values.

Aloha is Healing

To native Hawaiians, the Aloha Spirit means compassion, healing, understanding, tolerance, patience, gentleness, forgiveness and living in harmony.

One definition of the deeper meaning of Aloha is: "the joyful sharing of life energy in the present."

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Aloha starts with awareness. As one herbal practitioner and traditional Hawaiian healer says, "Aloha has to begin with self. You have to love yourself. You have to want to heal yourself. Any aspect of dis-ease is a lack of Aloha."

"Aloha includes all the things Aloha means; there is all the respect."

"When you have respect you start to heal. When you have lokahi, (peace or unity), you start to heal. The answer is when you look inside yourself--do you feel good about yourself, are you secure of who you are, are you aware you created everything you wanted to create?"

Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaii Starts Here

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The Aloha Spirit of Hospitality

Continuing the Aloha Spirit is the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel on Maui's northwest coast--

"The Most Hawaiian Hotel" as it is called, 

The Aloha Spirit in Dining

Aloha is the word in the award-winning cuisine of Tiki Terrace Restaurant at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel. 

Executive Chef Thomas Muromoto creates imaginative, delicious and healthful menus using native foods and vegetables--chicken or fish steamed in ti leaves, served laulau style in pouches, the native roots and shoots such as taro--the Hawaiian staple--Pohole Fern, Ogo Salad and favorite tropical fruits such as pineapple, mango, banana and papaya—and you won't forget the prize-winning “Banana Caramel Eruption” dessert!

It is no doubt true that what the native islanders took for granted, visitors to Hawaii are just now discovering--that the native Hawaiian diet is not only delicious, but packed with nutritional and healthful benefits. A further discovery is that this native cuisine is also excellent for weight-loss, without a sense of deprivation! 

For more information on the Native Hawaiian Diet, see this page.

The Aloha Spirit

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What is the Hawaiian word for "vacation"?
Find it at the online Hawaiian Dictionary!

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Copyright 2006 @ The Aloha Spirit - administrator.
No articles may be used without permission of The Aloha Spirit. All rights reserved.

Aloha Friends

FRIENDS VS. HAWAIIAN FRIENDS

FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Always bring the food.

FRIENDS: Will say "hello"
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a kiss.

FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Call your parents mom and dad.

FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Cry with you.

FRIENDS: Will eat at your dinner table and leave
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking, laughing and just being together

FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds' ass that left you.

FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"

FRIENDS: Are for a while.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Are for life.

FRIENDS: Will ignore this.
HAWAIIAN FRIENDS: Will forward this with Aloha

Aloha Spirit--It's the Law

In Hawaii, The Aloha Spirit is the basis of everyday life.

As stated in Hawaiian law:

"[§5-7.5] The Aloha Spirit.

(a) The Aloha Spirit is the coordination of mind and heart within each person. It brings each person to the Self. Each person must think and emote good feelings to others. In the contemplation and presence of the life force, Aloha, the following unuhi laulâ loa (free translation) may be used:

· Akahai, meaning kindness to be expressed with tenderness;
· Lôkahi, meaning unity, to be expressed with harmony;
· `Olu`olu, meaning agreeable, to be expressed with pleasantness;
· Ha`aha`a, meaning humility, to be expressed with modesty;
· Ahonui, meaning patience, to be expressed with perseverance.”
(- written by Hawaii's treasured kupuna, Auntie Pilahi Paki.)

"These are traits of character that express the charm, warmth and sincerity of Hawaii's people. It was the working philosophy of native Hawaiians and was presented as a gift to the people of Hawaii.

· Aloha
is more than a word of greeting or farewell or a salutation.

· Aloha
means mutual regard and affection and extends warmth in caring with no obligation in return.

· Aloha
is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence.

· Aloha
means to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen and to know the unknowable.

(b) In exercising their power on behalf of the people and in fulfillment of their responsibilities, obligations and service to the people, the legislature, governor, lieutenant governor, executive officers of each department, the chief justice, associate justices, and judges of the appellate, circuit, and district courts may contemplate and reside with the life force and give consideration to The Aloha Spirit. [L 1986, c 202, §1]"
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The Aloha Spirit blog

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