In our previous Column, we made reference to the World Health Organisation (WHO) website where there is mention of the 2019 Samoa State of Health statistics which highlight the ten leading causes of death in the population. 

The WHO collects this information from all its member countries and so can present the leading causes of death on a global scale. The Samoa statistics present a powerful indication of the present health of our population. 

The top eight causes of death include ‘ischemic heart disease’, ‘stroke’, ‘diabetes’, ‘chronic obstructive pulmonary disease’, ‘kidney diseases’, ‘cancers’, ‘cirrhosis of the liver’ and ‘Alzheimer’s disease’. It doesn’t need much analysis to conclude that eight out of the ten leading causes of death show a strong link to people’s unhealthy lifestyles, in particular their unhealthy eating habits. 

One can link this information with the recent estimates that 85 per cent of adults are overweight and 65 per cent obese and that Type 2 diabetes affects 30 per cent of the adult population. In short, our nation is in the grips of an ‘epidemic’ of non-communicable diseases (N.C.D.s). 

A cynic might object and claim that we all have to die sometime and that one obviously has to die from some type of organ malfunction. There might be some value in such an argument as long as people would die of ‘old age’, beyond the average national life span. However, such is not the case in Samoa: 81 per cent of premature deaths are caused by N.C.D.s. 

We have in this column a weekly basis highlighted the simple steps one could take to rectify this situation: change risky lifestyle patterns like stopping smoking and or reducing alcohol intake, but most of all adopting mostly plant-based nutrition.  There is now overwhelming scientific evidence, which has increasingly been reported for more than 30 years in prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journals that whole-foods, plant-based (WFPB) nutrition holds the key to the prevention and even reversal of N.C.D.s.

Suffice it to just quote one such report, an article presented in 2005 in an American medical journal by researchers at the world-famous Mayo Clinic. Its message could not be blunter: “Increased consumption of both processed foods and animal products is linked to increased mortality, diabetes and heart problems.”

The widely acclaimed feature film Forks over Knives (2011), which can be watched for free on YouTube, dramatically summarizes this evidence and adds to the powerful message that animal-based and refined foods are the basic cause of these diseases and therefore should be avoided. Our organization has been promoting the WFPB diet for the control of N.C.D. When we started our efforts in 2013, we were met by the audience with disbelief and shocked silence.

But thanks to the village projects we have been able to find funding for, more and more people are starting to realise that the toll that N.C.D.s are having on their lives is unacceptable. Over the last 2 to 3 years, we have detected signs that suggest that the public is losing patience with conventional drug treatments. The realisation by a diabetic patient that after being on drug treatment for their disease for several decades, they can reverse their diabetes in a matter of a few weeks by strictly following the WFPB diet is an eye-opener, a revelation they want to share with other fellow sufferers. 

And so, slowly, more and more people are willing to try the WFPB diet to control or even reverse their N.C.D. conditions. In a six-village project completed earlier in the year, we got the members of the Women’s Committee in each village (after training) to identify N.C.D. cases, coach them into following the whole food plant-based diet and regularly record their bio-data. It turned out that 30 per cent of the identified NCD cases were prepared to substantially embrace the WFPB diet and most importantly show improvement or reversal of their NCD condition.

Slowly, but surely, the ‘horse is getting out of the barn’ but more could be done to hasten popularising N.C.D. control measures. In the meantime, METI continues to spread its ‘Message of Hope’: Strictly follow the WFPB diet if you suffer from any of the N.C.D. conditions. We invite you to visit METI’s Healthy Living Clinic at House No. 51 at Moto'otua (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!