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Food and Health:
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“I’ve always been in with the big movement about organic,” Kaneakua says, “and non GMO and so forth. I lived that lifestyle as a Hawaiian girl growing up. So when that movement became really, really popular, it was like ‘Whoa, where you guys coming from? This is how we’ve been eating all our lives—this local girl anyway.’ So important, yeah. Especially in the Hawaiian culture there is this high disease rate, whether it’s heart, high blood pressure. My mom at some level, even my Dad, acquired lot of these diseases as they got older. So my little kind of knowing food and exposed to the healthier kind of stuff, I kind of slowly incorporated a healthier type of diet with my parents and got them off their meds, and kind of helped them. So I think it’s really important that we eat organic, for one. That we eat food that is free of pesticides, free of Genetically Modified [GMO] foods. 
“I think the foods are created for a purpose to do exactly what it was meant to do for the body, and I think now foods are being modified in a way that it is causing a lot of chaos in the body. I mean our people are really, really sick, and they are obese and they’re eating fast food, they’re eating junk food. They don’t care, they don’t have the means to think otherwise. But I think they do, so that’s what I do. “I try to inspire our native culture, our native people to eat healthy. And they always tell me it’s too expensive. So I help those that need help, the kūpuna. I juice regularly. I try to be an example of eating healthy. If it’s organic, non-GMO and local, it is kind of my philosophy about eating good and eating right. It might be pono at that day, or pono with whatever he had. “I also brought canoe food to a new level when I sailed on the Hōkūle‘a, and this was in ’99. This was from Rapanui to Tahiti. For me it was a challenge, I was like ‘Yeah, I can cook good food for the crew, get them healthy, get them strong,’ because 90 percent of their diet came from canned foods, and it was really salty. So being on the sea, that takes a toll on the body. Fortunately we were able to catch a lot of fresh fish, and when we left Rapanui we were given tons of fresh produce and stuff. So we had a good three weeks. I mean they were begging me for some can of Spam, and I’m like, ‘Go cook your own.’ So I like the challenge when I take on projects, it’s all about making a difference with the food to hopefully to encourage, direct, stimulate, get them excited to do something to want to eat like that. So that’s kind of my thing. 
“The whole food pyramid that we grew up to believe is the total opposite of what it should be. Should be turned upside down. But it’s always been my practice and I guess I been doing it this for over 30 or 40 years. When my kids were little, they liked to read the cereal box—and they’re like BHT, BPH and I say 'what the heck is that?' And they were kind of bummed because all they could get was Sugar Smacks, because it basically said “water, flour, honey, sugar”—you know, simple. Now you look at the ingredients on the box and its like whoa, forget about that. So stick with wholesome food, fresh food, as local as you can get. I think people will be okay, but they’re just running around taking out, getting fast foods, quick foods on the road which kind of ties into their work and lifestyle. Everybody’s jet setting. “But really important to cut back on high-fat foods. We all know they’re connected to heart diseases, high blood pressure. We all know that. I get tell a lot of my clients, you know we’re working with maybe just when you.... I would do a food prep for a couple that came from the mainland and her daughter is 17 and she is bulimic and anorexic and the mother is anorexic. But they were complaining because they weren’t getting enough food because the food was so good. 
"I was doing a three-day prep for them, I’d drop off every three days, but I just can’t believe that people are just...they were afraid of food, but when I was providing them wholesome, nutritional food, they were like “Give me more, give me more.” So I guess it’s having the right tool. Exactly what you’re eating right now, I can keep you right in your comfort zone, that whatever you’re used to eating, but make it more healthy for you. You might spend a little bit more money, but less time in the doctors’ office. “You can eat everything that you have in your house, organic or re-free or non-GMO. It’s out there. Some of my clients’ biggest complaints is they don’t know how to shop, and I’m like, ‘If it says egg, it’s an egg, it says chicken it’s a chicken, but make sure it’s free-range, organic, or non-GMO. Milk is milk. Stop getting egg substitutes, stop getting lactose free—all of these things, your body doesn’t really know actually, but it will effect it. "The way we are, we’re a sick country if you ask me, and all they do is give us the remedy in a form of pharmaceuticals, where the remedy is right here in our hearts and in our mind, and in the land. We can grow stuff and put this goodness in our bodies. 
"My mom was on high blood pressure pills and she couldn’t do lū‘au leaf—the doctor told her ‘no lū‘au leaf, those sort of things.’ She’s like, ‘I can’t eat that.’ I’m like ‘why?’ ‘My doctor said.’ I said ‘Stop taking his pills and we’re going to feed you food that will help keep your blood thin and do the same the thing that the meds are doing for you, keep you from clotting.’ Stubborn, I was like ‘no, no, no.’ People are just caught up in the system and it stinks. I think there’s a big movement, people are more aware and I try to share my food philosophy wherever I go, and wherever I go I bring something and they’re like ‘Oh my gosh!’ It’s so easy, just do this, do that. They’re like ‘Wow, I got everything at home, I just don’t just know how to put it together.’ “My sister used to joke all the time, ‘Oh, what’s this vegetarian food you brought tonight?’ I’m like ‘Yeah, don’t knock it until you try it.' And now, they don’t eat meat, they don’t eat this, they gave up sodas, they’re making teas, they’re making juices. And none of them are like ‘Ew, what kind of vegetarian dish did you bring?’ They were like stubborn—‘uh uh, no vegetarian.’ "So getting back to wholesome food: with my business, I use wild tuna, I use organic chicken, organic eggs, organic, organic, organic—and it’s local. It’s been resourced. There are some things I have no choice, but I have a choice, it kind of makes a meal complete being as balanced as I can make it. It’s been a challenge.” |
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