Return to Traditional Foods Urged to Improve Latinos' Health
 Dave Nordstrand - The (Salinas) Californian
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| | Esther Marshman owns an eatery in Salinas, Calif., that specializes in traditional Mexican foods made from fresh, healthy ingredients. (Richard Green/The Californian) |
In their village in Mexico, Esther Marshman's family lived frugally but ate healthy foods.
"We didn't have much money," says Marshman, who owns Ole Taqueria and Grill in Salinas, Calif. "We couldn't afford much meat."
Yet when watermelon, beans and other fruits and vegetables arrived on the kitchen table, they came fresh cut from the vine and with the sun's warmth rising from their core.
Only when Marshman moved to the United States did she drift from that traditional village diet and develop diabetes.
That is why today her taqueria menu carries such healthy options as "Grandma's beans" — whole Peruvian beans, bean broth, cabbage, cactus, pico de gallo and avocado.
Marshman's menu, which is mostly traditional Mexican fare made from fresh ingredients, is but one indicator of an aggressive national campaign to get many Latinos to include healthier foods from their native diets.
"I'm diabetic, and I have to be on a special diet," Marshman says. "So I figure there are many others like me."
The effort also includes nonprofits such as the Boston-based Oldways Preservation Trust and the Latino Nutrition Coalition, which posted online in May an updated version of its 1996 Latin American Diet Pyramid. (Oldways is the umbrella group for the coalition.)
The aim is to help Latinos, and all Americans, protect their bodies from the ravages of serious, diet-related illnesses.
Scientific evidence, for example, shows that being overweight or being obese is a factor in diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart disease and other ailments.
As one way to counter such threats, the Latino Nutrition Coalition offers its pyramid and a 16-page guide to shopping for healthier foods.
The guide and pyramid tout the staples of traditional Latin-American cooking, such as grains and tubers, as the road, the "Cambio Magico," to a healthier body.
The effort to shift diet choices stems from alarming statistics about weight gain, especially in the Latino population.
About 24 percent of Hispanic adults in New York State are obese, according to a 2007 report from the state health department.
Once they enter America, many Latinos abandon the healthier diets of their native regions. They switch to greasy fries, supersized vats of carbonated sodas and other cheap, but fat-, salt- and sugar-laden fast foods.
Also, Mexican foods as prepared in the United States are often less healthy than those same foods in Mexico, Marshman says.
"A lot of food in (U.S.) restaurants may look and taste Mexican, but it's made out of ingredients that come in packages and cans," she says. "It's processed."
Yet simple changes can make the diet healthier, she says. Substitute corn tortillas for flour tortillas, for example. Choose whole beans over fattier, refried ones.
"If people shifted to french fries, there's no reason they can't shift back to fruits and vegetables and corn tortillas and natural juices," says Susan Stuart, community coordinator for the Steps to a Healthier Salinas, which works in the community to promote healthier menu choices. |
Vallarta Weddings
Health & Beauty | November 2007 
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