Integrating Culture and History to Promote Health and Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities: Traditional Foods Have Become a Way to Talk About Health.

Purpose And Objectives: The purpose of the Traditional Foods Project (TFP) was to implement and evaluate a community-defined set of strategies to address type 2 diabetes by focusing on traditional foods, physical activity, and social support. The TFP sought to answer 2 questions: first, how do we increase and sustain community access to traditional foods and related activities to promote health and help prevent type 2 diabetes? Second, how do we evaluate interventions across culturally and geographically diverse communities to demonstrate success?

Intervention Approach: Public health interventions are most effective when communities integrate their own cultures and history into local programs. The food sovereignty movement among American Indians/Alaska Natives and indigenous populations globally offers ways to address public health issues such as chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.

Health Promotion and Diabetes Prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities--Traditional Foods Project, 2008-2014.

Type 2 diabetes was probably uncommon in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations before the 1940s. During 2010-2012, AI/AN adults were approximately 2.1 times as likely to have diabetes diagnosed as non-Hispanic white adults.