Tag: diet

NATIVE AMERICANS WEIGH CONTAMINATED FISH RISKS (Part II)

There’s a trend among some Native Americans. They’re trying to return to more traditional diets. Many believe various health problems among Indian populations are due, in part, to adopting a diet much heavier in sugars, starches, and fats than their ancestors’ diet. But they’re concerned that pollution has tainted many of the traditional foods, such as fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports in the second of a two-part series on communicating the risks of eating contaminated fish to ethnic groups:

Transcript

There’s a trend among some Native Americans. They’re trying to return to more traditional diets.
Many believe various health problems among Indian populations are due, in part, to adopting a
diet much heavier in sugars, starches, and fats than their ancestors’ diets. But they’re concerned
that pollution has tainted many of the traditional foods, such as fish. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports in the second of a two-part series on communicating the
risks of eating contaminated fish to ethnic groups:


A high rate of Native Americans suffer from diabetes and obesity. It’s commonly believed that
the European diet of processed grains, processed sugar, and fatty foods has contributed to the
health problems. So, some tribal members are looking at a traditional diet of fish and game and
the kinds of agriculture practiced by their forbearers. The idea is that traditional foods might be
more healthy for Native Americans.


But it’s become clear that some of those foods, particularly fish, are contaminated by pollutants.
PCBs and methyl mercury have been found in certain fish. Studies show those chemicals can
cause permanent health problems. Tribes have issued advisories, but some tribal leaders are
reluctant to discourage people from eating fish, even if it’s contaminated.


John Pursell works for the Minnesota Chippewa tribe. The tribe has issued advisories about
mercury in fish. But, Pursell says there’s a balance that has to be considered.


“We have to be careful that we aren’t advising people, tribal members, if we say ‘Don’t eat fish
of a certain size or from certain lakes,’ that we’re relatively certain that what they’re going to
replace that protein source with is not going to be more detrimental to their health. And that’s the
big concern.”


Pursell says, for example, his tribe is very concerned about dioxins. The tribe believes that
dioxins are responsible for a higher rate of cancer and other problems. And dioxins might be
present in the foods people in the tribe would eat instead of fish.


“But, we also know from the draft documents that the federal government has issued on dioxins,
that dioxins exist in fairly large quantities in such fatty foods as hamburger and cheeses. And of
course, these are foods that are found routinely in reservation commodity outlets.”


So, if it’s a matter of trading one kind of contamination for another, the logic goes, might as well
eat the healthier food, fish.


But the different tribes have different concerns and no one likes the idea of consuming
contaminated foods of any kind. So, there’s a lot of confusion about the best route to take to
dealing with the health problems among Native Americans.


Kory Groetchs is an environmental biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife
Commission. He says as interest in traditional foods builds, his agency is being asked for
answers.


“They have questions about industrial pollution and their impacts on traditional foods and, you
know, the balance between risks of consuming that food and the benefits of consuming it.”


Groetsch says the Commission is looking for funding to study ways to reduce the risk of
consuming contaminants. For example, one study tried to determine what size and where to catch
walleye with lower levels of mercury. He says more studies like that need to be conducted so
Native Americans can avoid the contaminants that might be present in traditional foods.


“And then definitely point out the situations where there is not concern so people can clear their
minds of these, if they have concerns, and they seem to, about industrial pollution such as methyl
mercury in fish, clear their mind of that and go back to a more traditional diet and eat in a more
natural, traditional way.”


Even those who are responsible for bringing the advisories on contaminants in fish to the
members of the tribe are hesitant. Maria Mabee is with the Seneca Nation in New York. She’s
an environmental activist and concerned about the effects of contaminants on health. At the same
time, she says there’s a limit to what she’ll recommend.


“You know, I can’t tell people to stop using fish for ceremonies. I just can’t do it. I won’t do it.
(laughs) I just, you know, I tell them about the risks, you know. I tell them what I know and I tell
them to make the best decisions for themselves.”


The tribes stress that the health benefits of fish should not be ignored. For many tribes, fish is a
staple. The question to answer they say is, if you don’t eat fish because of the risk of
contamination from pollution, will the food you eat instead be any more safe?


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Creating Healthier Red Meat

While red meat has taken a beating in recent years from the health industry, a number of studies now indicate that it’s also possible for even red meat to have some health benefits. Scientists and farmers have found ways to put certain important fatty acids in chicken and pig diets. Now chicken, pork, and even eggs can have lower than average cholesterol. An organic farmer from Northern Illinois is participating in a study that’s trying to get beef to catch up to its healthier counterparts. If he succeeds, farmers across the Great Lakes might start varying their grain crops. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Simone Orendain reports:

Transcript

While red meat has taken a beating in recent years from the health industry, a number of studies now indicate that it’s also possible for even red meat to have some health benefits. Scientists and farmers have found ways to put certain important fatty acids in chicken and pig diets. Now chicken, pork and even eggs can have lower than average cholesterol. An organic farmer from Northern Illinois is participating in a study that’s trying to get beef to catch up to its healthier counterparts. If he succeeds, farmers across the Great Lakes might start varying their grain crops. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Simone Orendain reports:

It’s feeding time on this sunny winter morning at Joel Rissman’s organic farm. Sixty head of cattle converge on the troughs that line the fence of their Northern Illinois cattle pen. The young cattle bob their heads in and out of the troughs that hold a mixture of pungent, sour hay and grain. They’re eating silage mixed with haylage.

“Think of sauerkraut, it’s along the same lines of sauerkraut.”

The dull yellow mixture of alfalfa hay and silage is made up of sorghum, cowpeas and soybeans that are mixed in the grain silo with an inoculant. The inoculant causes the silage to ferment quickly so it maintains its nutritional value. It raises the lactic acid content of the silage, making it easier for cattle to digest the food.

This silage-haylage mixture has a little extra in it. It has a pound of flax seed for each head of cattle.

Rissman says the flax seed will make the beef healthier than non-flax fed cattle. And it will taste better.

“What I’m striving for and my theory is that we can get the taste and flavor of a grain fed with the low cholesterol of a grass fed.”

Rissman is one of 10 cattle producers taking part in a study conducted by the Animal Sciences Department of Iowa State University. Researchers and farmers are looking at ways to raise healthy cholesterol levels in beef.

Grass-fed cattle produce healthy cholesterol called conjugated linolaic acid or CLA. The CLA is made up of trans-fatty acids. ISU Professor Allen Trenkle says increasing CLA in lab animals’ diets has protected them against plaque build up of cholesterol in arteries and certain forms of cancer.

But Trenkle, a lead researcher in the beef study, says consumers just don’t seem to like the taste of beef from grass-fed cattle.

“It’s just most of the beef that we have that’s been fed grain is bland. But that’s the taste that we’ve developed that’s what we want. They you introduce a different additional flavor and we say we don’t like that.”

Rissman explains his cattle were raised in a pasture from birth. He says by feeding them flax in the silage-haylage mix, he’s hoping to maintain the level of CLA that they produced when they fed on pasture. The cattle now feed exclusively on silage and haylage. Trenkle says flax seed has fatty acids that help increase CLA, but scientists are still learning why.

And Trenkle says there is a snag to the grain-fed experimentation:

“I would anticipate that it will be improved somewhat over conventionally fat animals, but the concentration of these fatty acids in beef’s very, very low. So feeding the flax may double it or increase it three or four times, but the concentration will still be low compared with the original oil in the flax seed.”

Trenkle says it will take a while to see if the experiment works. He says beef alone might not have a high enough CLA content to benefit consumers. Trenkle says it would have to be combined with a high CLA diet.

“I think just time alone will tell us whether the consumer is willing, how much the consumer is willing to pay for that. Will they want that product over the beef that has less CLA in it? We don’t know the answer to that question yet. In that sense, these farmers are pioneers.”

Rissman says he hopes it will work because he wants flax seed to be a prominent, viable grain again.

“Really the whole flax idea came from me wanting to find other grains. One of the big problems is, if you take food grade soybeans away from the organic farmers, probably 70 percent of those farmers would fail for lack of diversification, myself included. I wanted to find a way to diversify our crops.”

Trendle’s lab has its first batch of meat samples from grass-fed cattle. The team will begin analyzing the meat this month. Rissman says his cattle will be ready for sampling next year.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Simone Orendain.

Finding a Healthier Holiday Turkey

A turkey dinner with all the fixin’s is as much a part of the
holidays as Santa Claus and Christmas carols. Most people buy their
turkey in the frozen food section of the local supermarket. But a
growing
number are looking for a healthier alternative. They’re getting their
birds
right from the farm. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly
reports:

Herbal Remedies Moving Mainstream

There are thousands of herbal products on the market today.
They generate over 4 billion dollars in sales a year. And many doctors
are taking more notice. Some physicians see a need for more credible
research on herbs and minerals. And they want other doctors to
communicate more with patients that are considering using these
products. Now one doctor has designed some guidelines on herbal
treatments. He hopes this will initiate more discussion and research
about these dietary supplements. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Todd Witter has more.

Feds Test for Endocrine Disrupters

The U-S Environmental Protection Agency is working to identify whether certain chemicals disrupt human reproductive and neurological systems. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that the process will take years, and for now, scientists recommend avoiding suspect chemicals found in some foods:

New Study Disputes Mercury Risk

A new study from the University of Rochester has concluded that eatingocean fish with low levels of mercury doesn’t pose any serious healthrisks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more: