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COPYRIGHT 2000 Indian Country Today
Byline: Brenda Norrell
TUCSON, Ariz. _ Traditional Native foods of elk and blue corn were low in fat, salt and sugar, and combined with rigorous lifestyles to keep blood sugar levels low and American Indians healthy before the race for drive-through hamburgers, chips and colas.
Dr. Kathy Morsea, Navajo physician at the Gallup (N.M.) Indian Medical Center, said before European contact, American Indians thrived eating traditional foods.
"I don't mean fry bread," Morsea told the Association of American Indian Physicians at their 29th annual meeting.
Before the arrival of modern foods, American Indians ate unprocessed local foods. "And there was a lot of physical activity," she told Indian doctors during the recent five-day conference.
The change from eating wild game to domesticated animals resulted in a drastic increase in fat, with ground beef having seven times as much fat as elk.
Both the amount of fat, and changes in the type of fat, resulted in multiple health problems, with a sharp rise in diabetes, and...
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