We have made mentioned in earlier columns that our bodies make the best use of the foods we eat earlier in the day so there is this slogan: ‘at breakfast, eat like a King or Queen; at lunch, eat like a Prince or Princess and in the evening… eat like a Pauper!’ 

And again ideally, your last meal should be consumed by around 6 pm so that the food is digested by the time you go to bed and won’t interfere with your sleep. An added benefit of such a meal regime is that you give your body a break from eating and digesting for at least 12 hours so that it can do other essential things like cleaning up and repairing at the cell level, a bit like the janitors coming to clean the offices after hours. 

But for some people, who want to start following the whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet that we recommend for controlling or reversing the common non-communicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or cancer, it can be a bit confusing which one of the ‘new’ foods they are supposed to eat. We say ‘new’ foods, quite in contrast with most animal products, like meat, fish, eggs and dairy products – they have been consumed for years, basically three times a day. 

And this is where many people – even those who are convinced that they must change their diet to prevent catastrophes like a heart attack or stroke or kidney failure – are confused and asked: what are the foods I am allowed to eat? METI explains all this in its weekly Health Seminar, which we consider the ‘ten Food groups’, one should eat from, every day. Any day – if you want to stick to the WFPB diet – you should eat from these ten food groups. They are cruciferous vegetables, other green or coloured vegetables, starchy vegetables (root crops), fruits and berries, legumes, whole grains, spices, nuts, flax (or lin) seeds and nutritional yeast. 

We will now give details for each one of the ten food groups while concentrating on the ones found in Samoa and the least expensive: (1) Cruciferous vegetables include locally available Chinese cabbage, watercress and the leaves of the Moringa tree (‘tamaligi aina’). If you can spend extra money, you can buy imported Broccoli (which local growers should be able to grow in our cooler highlands). (2) Other green or coloured vegetables: this would include taro leaves (sold in the local markets as ‘fusi luau’- to make ‘poka’!); eggplant, pumpkin, carrots, tomatoes and chayote (‘soko’). (3) Starchy vegetables such as taro, breadfruit, green bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, cassava or imported potatoes. (4) Fruits and berries: fruits are in plentiful supply: year-round papaya, soursop, lemons and bananas and imported apples and then, there are the seasonal mangoes, mandarins, pineapple, abiu and rambutan. Fresh frozen berries are expensive, but the least expensive, are the dried ones, like raisins. (5) Legumes: which are beans, peas and lentils (which are small peas). Most of these are imported but relatively cheap, like baked beans or if you buy them in the dry form like chickpeas or yellow split peas, which you need to cook or put in the soup. One of the bean varieties that can be grown locally and which METI is promoting is soya beans. One of its by-products is soya bean curd or tofu, which is now locally manufactured and is a prime health food. (6) Whole grains: such as whole grain bread or oats. (7) Spices: such as onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric and a variety of other spices, which are the secret to tasty WFPB dishes. (8) Nuts: you only need a fistful a day; the cheapest are the local peanuts but if you can afford it buy a mixture of imported nuts of which there are many brands available in the stores. (9) Flax (or lin) seeds: offering a plentiful supply of omega-3 oils to fight high blood pressure and cancer (but remember you must ground the seeds!) and (10) Nutritional Yeast: an abundant source of beta-glucans to boost the immune system to fight cancer and communicable diseases. Now, what about what we should drink? Water, but also tea or coffee or cocoa (from sundried, non-roasted beans only). Stay away from sugar-sweetened drinks and alcohol, except for ‘special occasions’. 

We invite you to visit METI’s Healthy Living Clinic at House No. 51 at Moto'otua (across from the Kokobanana Restaurant) to become further acquainted with METI’s whole food plant-based diet and Lifestyle Change programs. Or call us at 30550. Learning how to follow these Programs might be your ‘game changer’!