In just one generation, the adoption of a Western diet and lifestyle has cut short the life of Pacific island people. So the question is: can we reverse or prevent non-communicable diseases if we change the way we eat and exercise more?
In tonight’s final episode, we look at why NCDs have increased so rapidly in native races; we explore the best diet for Pacific islanders in the 21st century; and we learn how to make traditional foods more tasty, more healthy and more appealing.
We also look at the secrets of a diet that helped reverse diabetes in the North Pacific’s Marshall Islands. So sit back; watch, listen and learn, as we travel back into Fiji’s history to discover the foods of life.
Welcome to this life changing and final one-hour episode of Taste of Paradise for season two!
Tonight’s final episode of Taste of Paradise was filmed over four days and takes viewers on a journey back in time around Viti Levu. The Fiji TV crew and I virtually lived in a van for the week as we left the Suva studios to explore some of Fiji’s ancient tourism sites to discover how the local people used to eat before NCDs and search for local foods to use in the show.
Just as we did in the Kadavu and Savusavu episodes, we only had basic cooking equipment and a handful of ingredients we bought from the shop. The rest of the local food used in this episode was found by the roadside and on location in markets and farms, and it is vegetarian, plant-based, along with some seafood. This is the ancestral diet of the Pacific islands that helped sustain the native civilisations, with no red meat, tinned meat or processed vegetable oils used in the recipes.
As we headed in an anticlockwise direction from Suva, through Tailevu, Rakiraki, Ba, the Coral Coast and back to Colo-i-Suva, the enduring legacy and power of season two became more apparent. If we can teach viewers how to make their traditional foods more appealing and sexy, we can empower people across the South Pacific to prevent disease.
Sweet watermelon of Wailotua
First stop was the incredibly old Snake God cave of Wailotua Village in Tailevu. Once a limestone coral reef submerged by ocean, the cave is thought to been have formed more than 15 million years ago.
After our offer of sevusevu to Ratu Savenaca Bose, we were taken deep inside the pitch dark labyrinth of caves to see the limestone formations that have given rise to the mythology of the snake gods. The ancient caves have been used by the Wailotua people for shelter, ceremony and rituals for centuries. Deep inside you will also find the blood-stained vertical killing stone, a tall groove in the cave walls, used to pin the enemy and crush their skull from the top. The caves are also home to thousands of bats of many species, including one that has a tail. The bat droppings, called guano, are used by villagers and mixed with crushed lime to fertilise their farms.
In this segment, I use Wailotua watermelon, deliciously sweeter because of the bat poo, in a lobster salad dish that is dressed with a coconut mayonnaise that assistant chef Kunal Prasad and I created on location.
Udre Udre’s man eating diet
Along the Kings Rd, just outside Rakiraki, is the grave of Fiji’s most notorious and prolific cannibal chief, Ratu Udre Udre. While most would shudder at the thought of eating more than 872 of his enemies during his lifetime, I wondered if eating too much human flesh was like eating too much red meat; not good for you. Many nutritionists and dieticians recommend eating less red meat, as there is growing evidence that red meat increases cancer risk. Scientists have observed an acid called Neu5Gc, which is found in the flesh and milk of the mammals we eat, accumulates in human tumours, particularly those of the colon, breast, retina and dark skin pigments. While scientists are not certain how and why Neu5Gc is associated with cancer, it seems the acid found in red meat helps to feed cancerous cells. For Ratu Udre Udre, at least we probably know he didn’t die of cancer from eating too many people.
Navala Village, Ba
With most of Viti Levu having become more modernised in this generation, it was refreshing to see one village that has resisted the urge to build concrete homes, shops and watch TV all day. Located deep at the foothills of the mountainous Ba ranges, Navala Village is truly how Fiji used to be.
I had a hunch that the Navala people lived a much more healthier lifestyle than the rest of the country, and I was right. A one hour trek inland from Ba Town, across unsealed roads that weaved up and down rugged terrain, the villagers live the simple life. Their iconic traditional bure are mapped out across the lush grass like small streets.
The Navala diet today mimics the recommended ancestral foods of the iTaukei. No red meat or chicken, but plenty of foods from the land, mountain and rivers. Seafood comes from the fresh water rivers and includes eel, fish and prawns.
There was not an overweight person in sight, and many of the elders who are now in their late 80s, still farm their own land. The women continue to fulfill their traditional role of walking vast distances to collect firewood, while the men travel across the hills and rivers in search of their food. While the people live inside their family bure, all of the cooking is still done in a separate kitchen bure.
This was my first experience of cooking inside a bure with only a wood fire, a blowing tube and a few utensils. Sainiana Makitalena and her family were kind enough to allow us to film inside, if only to learn a new way to cook with green bamboo in this segment.
Bamboo is mainly used a building material, so it was the first time the villagers had seen it used to cook fish inside the tube with coconut water.
As we filmed this segment, I asked the village men inside the kitchen bure what time did they usually eat dinner. One of them cheekily replied: “It depends how long it takes the women to cook the food we find. Sometimes it is fast, other times it is nearly midnight, so we keep drinking yaqona until it is ready.”
Navala Village is one of my most memorable Fijian experiences of lifestyle, simplicity and fresh foods, and one that every Fijian and tourist must come to see.
Tongan Tavuni Village Fort
Most Fijians may know of the Tongan history in Vanua Levu and Lau, but did you know that a Tongan chief settled a part of Sigatoka around 1800AD? Following a dispute with his brother during the reign of the Tui Pelehaki family, the young Maile Latamai gathered his servants and left Tonga for Fiji to learn the ways of the fierce Fijian warriors. Stopping in Kadavu and Serua before landing at Korotogo, Latamai travelled inland to Tavuni where he eventually established a village fort overlooking the Sigatoka valley.
This high point gave him a strategic advantage to see his enemies approaching. Few remnants remain of the old village, which was abandoned in 1875, but many of Latamai’s descendants who are still alive today maintain this National Heritage site for history including Fipe Ratumeli.
As we walked to the scenic lookout point, Fipe described how life must have been all those centuries ago. Just as the local women collect kai clams from the river below today, evidence that the Tongan villagers did the same is scattered across the old village, with shell fragments along much of the pathways and hill tops. Medicinal plants used to treat all types of ailments can also still be seen, including the kutu leaves for coughs that I ended up throwing into the medicine green stir fry dish.
Waisila Falls, Colo-I-Suva
In 2006 and 2007, Canadian dietician Brenda Davis was part of a research team tasked with developing a program for the Republic of the Marshall Islands to successfully treat type two diabetes through a dramatic lifestyle and diet change. Davis is the co-author of the personal development book, Defeating Diabetes, a look into what is causing diabetes and its relationship with the Western diet.
Like Fijians, in just one generation the Marshallese have moved away from their Pacific Islander diet of root crops, leaf green vegetables, fruit and seafood, and replaced it with a modern diet of processed, packaged and refined foods from a factory and not a farm. Not surprising, over 90 per cent of the Micronesian Marshallese are now diagnosed with diabetes. The modern Marshallese diet is virtually the same as the current Fijian diet, and according to Davis, could not be more perfectly designed to maximise the likelihood of developing diabetes. The Marshall Island study revealed that a radical change in diet and more exercise could not only treat type two diabetes, but actually reverse it and restore insulin sensitivity and normalise blood glucose levels. But the diet is not an easy one to follow for any islander who loves their bread, oily food, sugary drinks and tinned meat. Davis reveals that the optimum diet for most of us is plant based and grown from soil; the foods of life. In the final segment filmed at the base of the Waisila waterfalls, I cook a fish stew that is inspired by the Marshall Islands diet.
The indigenous people of this planet are descendants of ancient human races that lived with NCDs and without fear of the food they ate. We should do everything in our power to embrace their ancestral diet; understand what it means to eat the foods of life; and make our local foods more appealing to eat every day. Our destiny is in our own hands. It is in every meal we serve to our children and family. It is in the seeds of agriculture we find in our farms, plants and trees. We are what we eat. But how strong are you to make the change?
* Lance Seeto is an award-winning international food writer, author, television presenter and inspirational chef based on Castaway Island Fiji. Watch “Taste of Paradise: the foods of life” tonight only on Fiji One TV and Sky Pacific.
Recipes by Lance Seeto
GREEN BAMBOO FISH
Navala Village, Ba
1 whole fish, scaled and filleted
1 green bamboo tube, one end sealed
2 tomatoes, quartered
handful of moca and ota ferns
Fish marinade
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, crushed
2 only white onions, peeled and quartered
3-4 fresh lemon leaves
bunch coriander, stems and leaves
1 green coconut, water only
pinch of salt
1. In a mortar and pestle or blender, grind the ginger, garlic, onions, lemon leaves and coriander into a paste
2. Marinate the fish pieces in the paste
3. Holding the bamboo upright, slowly fill the tube with the fish, tomato and greens and coconut water
4. Tap the bamboo tube on the ground to make the filling drop to the bottom
5. Continue filling the bamboo
6. Cover the end with leaves or foil, leaving a small gap for the steam to release
7. Cook the whole bamboo over an hot charcoal for at least 30 minutes
8. When you see steam and water emit from the end, the fish should be cooked
9. Carefully peel one side of the bamboo to reveal its contents
10. Serve immediately with boiled root crops
Three Bean Stir Fry
Tavuni Hill Fort, Sigatoka
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese ground bean sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar or honey
handful of otta and moca
1 only white onion, peeled and choped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, fine chopped
handful of long beans
1 cup mixed raw beans
2-3 curry leaves
1-2 red chillies, chopped with seed
Coriander leaves for garnish
Coconut oil
1. In a medium hot, dry frypan with no oil, toast the raw beans for approx. 5 mins and set aside
2. In a hot frypan, fry the onion, ginger, curry leaves and garlic in coconut oil
3. Add the beans, long beans and green vegetables. Toss for 2 minutes
4. Add the sauce and continue frying for another 2-3 minutes
5. Serve immediately on its own or with brown rice
