Husking coconuts: Less physical work in preparing food in New Zealand. (Photo: PMC/File.)

A church-based health project is making steady progress towards changing nutrition habits among Pacific communities in New Zealand. Slow but steady change is happening.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Katie Marriner.

Statistics are not flattering towards Pacific Island obesity levels. But some Pacific churches are now part of a plan to encourage better health.

Ministry of Health figures reveal that Pacific people are 2.5 times more likely to be obese than men and women in the total population.

This equates to 63.7 percent of Pacific Island adults in New Zealand being obese.

Obesity within Pacific culture is further complicated following migration to New Zealand and the sudden reality of urbanisation.

Mafi Funaki-Tahifote is a registered nutritionist and researcher for Pacific Heartbeat. She is realistic about the situation in the Pacific.

“Obesity rates in the Islands are definitely catching up and they are among some of the highest in the world,” Funaki-Tahifote says.

“These rates are very much founded in the urban parts of the island, not the outer islands where they are not getting the imported foods from overseas.”

Major factor

She considers environmental change a major factor in the high obesity levels in the Pacific Island community in New Zealand.

“There is a change in the supply of food and the availability of food in the Islands compared to New Zealand,” Funaki-Tahifote says.

She says energy dense foods that are high in fat and sugar such as takeaways are not readily available in the Islands.

However, when Pacific people come to New Zealand, these are the foods that are closest to their homes.

“What we have found through observation is that where Pacific people populate more there is a higher concentration of takeaway foods that are not really offering healthy options.”

Funaki-Tahifote says the elimination of everyday physical activities when Pacific Islanders come to New Zealand also increases obesity levels. An example, albeit slightly clichéd, is coconut picking.

Coconut cream

“In the Islands, people have to go and pick the coconut from the tree, husk it, grate it and then squeeze the cream from the shell,” she says.

“In New Zealand coconut cream is readily available from the shop shelves. People do not have to do as much physical work to prepare food for the family.”

One programme that is actively promoting healthy food choices is the Healthy Village Action Zone project (HVAZ).

HVAZ was established in 2007 by the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB). The project works with 42 Pacific churches within the ADHB catchment to improve and facilitate better health outcomes for the members and families of each congregation.

The project looks at Pacific health issues in a holistic sense.

As well nutrition, health issues particularly affecting Pacific people in New Zealand are included in the project including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.

What sets the HVAZ project apart from other church-based health programmes is that primary health organisations are involved in the project as well.

Cook Islander Ta’i Matenga Smith, the HVAZ project nutritionist, works on the project through the Tongan Health Society.

Small changes

Matenga-Smith says the programme helps to make small changes which will hopefully have a big impact on the way Pacific think about food.

“We have the worst healthy eating statistics in New Zealand,” Matenga-Smith says.

“It is because of our upbringing. We say we are healthy in the islands but our food is high in sugar and high in fat and there are very little vegetables.”

She says small changes such as installing water fountains in churches rather than serving sugary fizzy drinks and swapping full fat milk for trim milk will have an impact on Pacific nutrition.

“We are trying to make changes in the home but these changes must start in the church.”

As well as participating in activities, many church-goers have attended nutrition courses to further their own knowledge as well as the knowledge of the community.

So far 60 percent of the churches in the HVAZ programme have completed a two-day nutrition course run concurrently with Pacific Heartbeat. Six churches have completed a nine day training course.

Those who successfully complete the courses then go on to mentor other members of the church on healthy eating.

Nutrition activities

The Seventh Day Adventist Church in Penrose is an HVAZ participant. Nutrition activities started at the Tongan church in January.

“We encourage people to eat healthy now,” says nurse Anau Wolfgramm.

“People have got used to eating healthy now and they are doing it in their own homes.”

Of the 500 members of the Penrose church, Wolfgramm says around 100 take part in weekly Sunday activities.

One of the most successful activities was a “Biggest Loser” competition where three ladies lost around 30 kg.

But are Pacific people embarrassed by all of this attention focused on their weight?

“People are starting now to talk about issues and share their issues,” says Ta’i Matenga-Smith.

“We haven’t seen this before.”

“One lady used to be 200 kg and she has lost 50 kg since she started the programme,” she says.

Changing attitudes

Funaki-Tahifote says changing attitudes towards food within Pacific communities is a challenge because food holds significance far beyond nourishment.

In Pacific cultures, food is often a status symbol, whereby the more food you have, the more money and importance you possess.

New Zealand-born Samoan Naomi Tuipulot says it will be hard to change some of the habits and traditions that involve food in Pacific cultures.

“It will take a lot to change the older generation because they are so stuck in their ways,” she says.

“The food traditions are something that was brought from the islands, it belongs to them and to leave it might be like leaving their past.”

“Changing eating is like changing identity.”

Tuipulot recalls a first birthday party where the family provided 110 pigs for guests to eat.

Huge portions

“Portions are huge, the more food you have the better your status is,” she says.

Mafi Funaki-Tahifote says the larger amount of food that is supplied at an event such as a wedding or a graduation shows the importance of the person’s role in the community at the time.

“If there is not enough food to feed everyone then your event will not be highly regarded because you ran out of food,” she says.

“Portion is of huge value to Pacific people yet what we are trying to do in health is to change the portion sizes in terms of quantity to quality.”

HVAZ programme leader Faimafili Tupu says goals have been set for the project up until 2015.

“By June 2015 we hope health inequalities for Pacific peoples in the Auckland District are reduced with a focus on priority conditions,” she says.

She says the ADHB want to reach out to more Pacific churches in the future.

Katie Marriner is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.