KEY POINTS:
Maori communities will change their eating, exercising and lifestyle habits to stave off diabetes, a study has found.
The study used lifestyle changes to bring about weight loss in Ngaruawahia Maori at high risk of diabetes.
The 160 Maori participants in the Te Wai o Rona: Diabetes Prevention Strategy Team study were all at severe risk of type 2 diabetes. On average, each of those people lost 5.2kg during the study's 15-month run.
According to the United States' Diabetes Prevention Programme, a 5 per cent loss in body weight translates to a 35 per cent reduction in the risk of developing diabetes.
The changes were, crucially, driven from within the communities - by trained Maori known to the participants.
Using 30 Maori Community Health Workers plucked from the community, 12 basic messages for improving health standards in the community were touted.
The messages were as simple as "eat less fat", "increase daily exercise" and ""watch the portion size", AUT professor of nutrition Elaine Rush told the Herald.
One of the study's lead researchers, Professor Rush said the key to turning the simple messages into life-changing and potentially life-saving changes had been the community-level focus of the work.
"They were helped by people from their own community. It was their cousins and their uncles they were working with."
Walking groups were established to get people active. Businesses were encouraged to stock healthier food. Families were taught how to cook healthier meals, and taught the value of such meals to their family's health, Professor Rush said.
"And I actually think that's sending a message saying, 'I love you, and I want you to live longer.' Because that's what giving people healthy food is doing."
The results showed Maori communities could effectively reduce their part in the country's diabetes epidemic, which was at present far worse in Maori than Pakeha, she said.
Diabetes was a huge health cost to New Zealand and its bill would lurch into the billions in the future.
"The thing that is really concerning is: if a women has gestational diabetes, that puts her baby four times more at risk of getting diabetes in their life. We're not just looking at helping people now. We're looking at helping people in the future. That's going to give us the biggest bang for our buck."
Professor Rush said the study's results gave serious credibility to the Government's current community-based attempts at preventing diabetes through lifestyle changes, including Healthy Eating Healthy Action.
BEATING THE DISEASE
* Look for ways to be active every day.
* Increase your daily exercise and include intense exercise.
* Move more, add more steps.
* Choose to be strong.
* Reduce your sedentary leisure time.
* Drink more water.
* Eat more fruit and vegetables.
* Choose more variety of protein-containing foods.
* Eat less fat.
* Watch your portion sizes.
* Eat more fibre.
* Eat less sugar, and decrease simple sugars.
