meat eating in trinidad

[Guest guest]

hi durgesh

 

trinidad actually, the land of steel drums and soca

 

i would say there have been some minor changes in my diet, but given

that i haven't actually fully relocated i am dependent upon what my

hosts make or what we can get outside - i am enjoying the coconut

water/jelly and tropical fruits (especially guava and passionfruit),

but am still eating meat and eggs, as well as lots of above-ground

vegetables (dasheen, bodi, bhagi etc.) and a little of what folks here

call "ground provisions," i.e. yams, sweet potatoes, breadfruit, eddoe,

cassava, etc., as well as more dahl and beans

 

i have been here for a couple weeks and seen about 150 patients, both

vegetarian and nonvegetarians, and the commonality in all these cases

is a subsistence on refined carbohydrate foods such as white flour

roti/paratha, white bread and par-boiled rice, as well as too much of

the ground provisions, and more recently, kentucky fried chicken, pizza

and sub sandwiches etc - unfortunately there are few alternatives, as

the traditional local economy of growing their own food has almost been

entirely abandoned, to the detriment of the entire country - only a

generation ago people grew their own rice ("lagoon rice"), raised their

own chickens ("common fowl") and milk, obtained their own coconut oil

("home coconut," not copra), and grew a large assortment of vegetables

and fruits - in the rural areas you still see this

 

i have seen lots of poorly controlled diabetes, with patients put on

inflexible insulin regimens with no information regarding diet, thus

facilitating a dietary approach that accommodates excessive insulin

dosing and the resultant hypoglycemia, not the other way around (i.e.

eating to reduce inulin use)- thus the progression of the dz is

exponential for many, and with patients in their mid-40's on 75 units

of insulin a day and going blind its pretty difficult - people here are

not served by their doctors in the least - its quite outrageous really,

but i am educating patients to be more proactive in their diet and

insulin regimens, and getting those NIDDMs on metformin etc to try

herbal alternatives

 

i wouldn't say vegetarians are necessarily worse off than non-vegies,

but every single vegetarian patient i have had except one has

truncal-abdominal obesity and at least early indications of CVD or

worse - in severe cases i find it particularly challenging because its

impossible to reduce the glycemic load on a veg diet and adequately

control hyperglycemia - 200-300 mg/dL are normal readings for many - my

approach usually consists of completely eliminating all carbs from the

diet - in some non-veg patients that have done this with comprehensive

supplement regimens, antioxidants plus herbs like triphala, tien qi

ginseng etc they have been able to stop retinal bleeding in only a few

weeks, and reduce insulin doses from 30-40 units to 10 units or less

daily - the goal of course is to get them off it completely...

 

with the vegies, i am having a harder time coming up with effective

dietary regimens to promote weight loss, focusing on high protein

pulses and cereals, high fiber grains, lots of above-ground vegetables

etc - but the changes are very slow to take effect

 

of course i am only seeing the diseased folks, but i can't find anybody

over the age of 35 that doesn't have a belly and hence obvious risk

factors for diabetes, CVD and cancer, veg or not

Caldecott

www.toddcaldecott.com

 

> from your recent posts, it seems like you have moved from Canada to

> Florida to Jamaica.

> In either case both Florida and Jamaica being " hot ", have you

> changed your diet to meet the "climate" ? Have you become a veggie, regardless

of this debate ?