Traditional foods for health

Native Americans look to their dietary past

By Culinate staff

June 29, 2010

You may be aware that Native Americans have some of the country’s highest rates of obesity and diabetes, thanks in no small part to the contemporary American industrial diet. But as USA Today recently noted, many Native Americans are looking to the past for their health, shunning modern eating habits for the ways of their ancestors: beans, corn, squash, and the like.

Individual efforts as well as government grants are helping. Improved access to health care, nutritional counseling in schools and businesses, school mentoring programs, and community farming are among the programs making headway.

And oh, yeah, farmers’ markets too — no small potatoes when many Native Americans don’t live near a grocery store.