Diabetes Prevention

In 2005, with the support of the Palo Alto Rotary, Club Rotario Nuevas Generaciones and the Rotary Foundation, PI began a health education program to help prevent type ll diabetes. This project has been successful in creating awareness about the importance of nutrition and exercise in their lives and has led to several other projects including biointensive gardening, archiving family histories and cultivating local traditional foods.

In 2005, Rotary donated the technology for the studies, including computers, scanners, printers, cameras, recorders and supplies and members of the communities continue to contribute hours and hours of work interviewing , researching , and teaching in their own villages.

Middle and high school students from each community interview elders (grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors) and interviews are digitally recorded, transcribed and burned to CD to archive information. Old photos relating to family life, milpas, animals, and food are scanned and preserved to disk as well.

Sample questions include:

• When you were young, how did your family get their food?
• What were the ten most common foods that you ate.
• What were the most common liquids that you drank?
• Did your family have a garden, milpa, huerta etc?
• If so, what kinds of food did you grow?
• Did your family raise animals for food? If so, which animals did you have for food?
• Which did you eat more often, corn tortillas or bread?
• Did you drink refrescos? If so, how often?
• Did you drink Jamaica? Horchata? Jugo?
• Did you have desserts or sweet food very often? How often?
• Did you have candy for special occasions or every day?
• Which vegetables did you eat often?
• Which fruits did you eat often?
• Did your family hunt for food? Which animals?
• Did you eat cereals like avena? Did you have prepared cereal in a box?

Students then compared the foods traditionally eaten in their villages to their own diet and came to their own conclusion that foods eaten today are less nutritious and too high in sugars and empty calories. Older students and PI asesores share with children and families the importance of healthy diet and exercise in preventing type 11 diabetes.