Samoan pastor preaches gospel of healthy eating

Fish and ripe bananas are the favourite foods of health-conscious churchman the Rev Elifasa Maafala Koko.

The Auckland minister, who graduated from a course on healthy eating and exercise for Pacific people, is already taking its tips to his congregation.

Weekly musical exercise classes have started at his Pacific Islanders Presbyterian Church in Owairaka and a group walks up Mt Albert on Saturday mornings.

Next will be classes in healthier cooking. They will be designed to steer parishioners away from over-reliance on foods laden with saturated fat, like coconut cream, and into eating the likes of grilled fish and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

"Our older people, their favourite is salted meat and roasted pig's head," the minister said.

Mr Koko, aged 54, is a 1.85m-tall and solidly built Samoan. He has an active life: He runs regularly and plays tennis and touch rugby. However, at 97kg, he wants to lose weight.

A former psychiatric nurse, he said he had always eaten well. But weight was a problem in his congregation, which was why he and two women from the church had attended the nutrition courses, run by the Heart Foundation and accredited by the Auckland University of Technology.

He said messages about nutrition and exercise now sometimes slipped into his sermons.

"If we are serious about our spirit then I believe it is also important for us to be careful physically, especially with daily exercise and the kind of food we eat."

Switching to healthier habits could be tough.

"For some of our older people it's a big change. They are not used to exercise," he said.

Some disliked the idea of eating a lot more vegetables.

Mr Koko's family, however, is used to healthy food: "I'm the cook."

For dinner on Wednesday he was making chicken soup, served with rice and slices of tomato and cucumber.

Sixty-five people are graduating from the Pacific nutrition courses this month, including, for the first time, a Wellington class.