Overcoming challenges of sticking to an all-plant diet

By Dr. Walter Vermeulen. 04 June 2023, 12:00PM

Many people wanting to follow the whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet that METI promotes – for the control or reversal of non-communicable diseases (NCD) like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure; heart disease or cancer – find it hard to strictly stick to this all-plant diet. Even in situations where it is essential to strictly follow the diet to ensure their survival.

On the other hand, our statistics show that on average 30 per cent of the patients that respond to our call for them to follow the WFPB diet will indeed persevere and stick to the WFPB diet. Their decision to continue to fully adopt the diet is usually bolstered by the sudden feeling of well-being (which they hadn’t felt for years in most cases) and the surprise reversal of their NCD conditions (which they never believed could be possible). 

The other 70 per cent – that cannot stick firmly to the diet – face all kinds of obstacles including unhealthy eating habits that are difficult to abandon, lack of family support and unfamiliarity with the new food rules. When METI started its Healthy Living seminars, we were confident that showing the famous picture (of almost 100 years ago) of the Vaimoso Headquarters of the Mau Movement and its members, all of whom looked healthy and trim (rather than obese) would provide a strong cultural incentive to the present generations of Samoans to imitate their ancestors. 

We soon were disappointed and stopped showing the slide! We have become aware –alas- that the present eating habits of our people are far different from those of the Samoans that lived even only 50 years ago. We have now taken the attitude that introducing the WFPB diet is like introducing an ‘innovation’ – a new habit- into the country. 

On top of that, conventional medicine, not just in Samoa but worldwide, has been favouring pharmaceutical drugs for the control of NCD, which unfortunately do not eliminate the cause of these conditions, with the result that most patients will have to take their medicines for the rest of their life. 

In many villages, the METI ‘message of hope’ that strictly following the WFPB diet could reverse the NCD conditions is welcomed but at times with disbelief. All this has further convinced us that the adoption of the WFPB diet needs to be seen as an ‘innovation’ that first needs to be diffused before it will be gradually adopted by the communities nationwide. In his seminal work ‘Diffusion of Innovations’, Everett M. Rogers, a world authority in this field, identified two classes of individuals in social systems that are influential in the diffusion of innovations: the ‘opinion leader’ (which we have called ‘the champion’) and the ‘change agent’ (which in the context of METI’s Projects is the ‘Taiala’, which we have also termed ‘internal animators’ – in contrast with the ‘external animators’, which are the METI staff.) 

According to Rodgers, the success or failure of diffusion programs rests in part on the role of opinion leaders. ‘The most striking characteristic of opinion leaders is their unique and influential position in their social system’s communication system.’  METI in its 2018 4-village project became vividly aware of the importance of the opinion leader. 

In one of the villages, Samalaeulu, one of the ‘champions’ was the EFKS pastor, the Reverend Palemia Reupena, who had followed the METI WFPB diet, which had allowed him to regain his health. The Reverend became actively involved in the project and in his Sunday sermons would encourage the Community to follow the plant-based diet. As a result: 93 per cent of the identified NCD sufferers reversed their conditions during the project period!  Rodgers likewise points to the pivotal role played by the ‘change agent’ (Taiala). ‘One factor in change agent success is the amount of effort (and time) spent in communication activities with clients.’ This is why the appropriate training of the Taiala is so important and why METI has created its Primary Health Care training course for the Taiala, which is now accredited by the SQA. 

In a recent 6-village project METI rallied the support of the Women’s Committees that selected some of their members to be trained as Taiala. Even without the participation of the opinion leaders (in some villages there were none!), 30 per cent of the NCD sufferers that were prepared to start the WFPB diet were motivated enough to keep following the diet and showed improvement or reversal of their conditions. 

Rodgers highlights a crucial concept in understanding the social nature of the diffusion process: it is the ‘critical mass’: the point after which further diffusion becomes self-sustaining. It occurs at the point at which enough individuals in a system have adopted an innovation so that the innovation’s further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining. The ‘take-off’ percentage is reached when 15 to 20 per cent of the targeted individuals have adopted the innovation. 

We now have reached this ‘critical mass’, with on average 30 per cent of the NCD sufferers that are made aware of its benefits willing to stick to the WFPB diet. All that now is needed is to approach other villages and allow them to initiate a communal Primary Health Care project following the guidelines crafted by METI. 

We invite you to visit METI’s Healthy Living Clinic at House No. 51 at Motootua (across from the Kokobanana Restaurant) to become 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’!

By Dr. Walter Vermeulen. 04 June 2023, 12:00PM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>