With obesity recognized as a global health crisis for years and research mounting on the significant perils associated with the standard American diet, many have begun looking for ways to stabilize their health by adopting better eating habits. For Penobscot elder Barry Dana of Indian Island, the answer is returning to traditional foods  a transition that the former chief asserts is key to better health for individuals from all backgrounds as well as the overall well‑being of the Wabanaki tribes.
     Like many, Dana was raised on the standard American diet, something that in his case was reinforced by the highly processed packaged foods given to tribal families by the federal government. When he was growing up on Indian Island, the "government goodies," as his family called them, were a way of life. "We'd eat canned meats, powdered potatoes, powdered milk, canned milk, cheese, butter, toast, bologna, cookies and lots of oatmeal, pasta and rice," Dana lists. Some traditional foods, such as fish, deer and fiddleheads, were included, but fresh nutrients were absent from the majority of his family's diet.
     From a young age Dana was an exceptional athlete. In 1981, at 22 years old, he completed his first "Katahdin 100," a Penobscot spiritual journey that involves traveling the 100 miles from Indian Island to Mount Katahdin. As an avid runner, he regularly competed in races, and he and his wife employed their familiarity with canoes to become national whitewater canoe champions in 2009.
His experiences as a successful athlete made it doubly surprising when Dana was struck by a heart attack at 50 years old. "It rocked my world," Dana recalls. "I thought I was immune to anything bad since I was still a very active athlete." His chiropractor was equally surprised and asked Dana what he ate. "I gave him the usual answer everyone gives, 'Oh, I eat healthy.'" Dana described how he was following the low‑fat diet approved by his cardiologist at the time: he grew and ate from a garden, and they hunted for wild meats. The chiropractor pointed out that "low fat" often means "high carb," and gave him a list of foods to avoid to prevent heart attacks. "It was everything we were eating," Dana says. The list included margarine, bagels, bananas, pasta, breads, soy and cereals. "This was most of my diet."
     Dana immediately began researching alternative diets online, initially coming across the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii. "It made sense," Dana says. "This group made meat to be the cause of all diseases known to man; however, they neglected to mention that all the studies they presented focused strictly on industrial farmed meat from a time when there were few restrictions on quality. Not that there's much today, either." Dana didn't quit meat, but he added a lot more vegetables to his diet, even going so far as to make a bent-sapling greenhouse to better raise them at his residence in Solon.
     When Dana continued his research, he found the "ancestral diet," which called him to "eat as my ancestors did." He moved away from processed foods like margarine and began looking for ways to incorporate authentic foods into his diet. He received a gift of traditional corn, squash and bean seeds, known as the "three sisters" for their importance to the ancestral diet of the Abenaki peoples.      "So that's where I'm at today, as traditional as possible," Dana says. "Our supper meals are 100% traditional food, plus Himalayan pink salt and butter."
     Dana has experienced no health complications after he began his ancestral diet. The diet has successfully sustained him through his newest athletic endeavors, including regularly running sled dogs, cross-country skiing and completing the 100‑mile wilderness of the Appalachian Trail in less than 48 hours on foot.
     As a result of his regained health and the benefits he has seen from switching to the ancestral diet, Dana is a constant advocate for other tribal members to make the transition. While some have listened, some family members continue to eat as they did previously, requiring them to take increasingly higher doses of medications and to live "in constant fear of things getting worse." The lack of response to the ancestral diet frustrates Dana somewhat. "It would seem that as Native people they'd have an internal connection to traditional thinking, and they do in many other ways, but not when it comes to food."
     There is substantial evidence linking the modern diet with health issues. A 2012 Mayo Clinic study found that the group in the study that consumed the most carbohydrates had an 80% higher chance to develop mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's disease. A review of five studies published in 2017 found that four of them linked the consumption of "ultraprocessed food" to being overweight or obese.
     Even with ample reasons for peoples of all backgrounds to adopt a traditional diet, Dana recognizes it is an uphill battle. Part of the problem in helping others to make the transition is the industry behind processed foods, Dana explains. "It's like a cult, and the industry is the leader, making people believe that these quick and easy foods are fine since they are on the shelf." Dana says that processed and convenience foods are an addiction that is killing people. "I see what people eat; they brag about their beer, pizza, pastas and breads. It's a culture of bad eating validated by virtually all layers of society." Dana describes how widely produced processed foods are often filled with pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals. Further, as a result of the same crops being planted in the same location season after season, they are bereft of nutrients. "The plants contain very little nutrition. We need the proper nutrition in our foods to ward off cancer and to keep our immune systems working."
     Other challenges in making the transition stem from a general lack of resources to grow healthier food. "Some people are doing all they can with what they have to work with," Dana acknowledges. "Some are trying to do it, but do, in fact, lack the space to grow food. And, sadly, some do admit to not really caring about their health. They actually say, 'We are all going to die anyway.'"
     For those who are on a limited budget but are interested in eating better, Dana says it will require "really acting smart with food choices, such as no junk -- cigarettes, alcohol, soda, bread, juice -- and instead focus on nutrient and calorie‑dense foods like butter, meats, fish, chicken, good rice, some veggies and simple spices." Ideally, feeding and raising a family well will involve supplementing the diet with hunting, fishing, growing corn, squash and sunflowers and having a small farm with egg producers, meat birds, goats and a milking cow. "It can be done," Dana says.
Gaining food sovereignty is an essential component in regaining overall health for the Wabanaki tribes, Dana says. "As Wabanaki people, we need food sovereignty. ... We need farms, including livestock and fish farms, and large corn, bean and squash gardens."
      Local communities and individuals can make these changes on their own, Dana states. "If government and corporations are not going to do what's right, then we on a local level need to take our own actions," he says. "Fake foods kill people and kill the environment, while locally raised foods save lives and save the environment. Which do you choose?"