Pacific Daily News from Agana Heights, Guam • A3

A JA A 7 2 0 1 9 A 3 Local ed to maintain high calorie counts during wartime conditions and where it should have stayed, according to Jessica Nangauta, a farmer, mother of three and food sovereignty advocate. was only ever meant to be an emergency food source. not something anyone is supposed to be eating Nangauta said. growing up on Guam, practically everyone has, at some point, had Spam for breakfast with rice and A single 2-ounce serving of Spam contains about 180 calories, 16 grams of fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol and 790 milligrams of sodium, according to the Hormel Foods website. But virtually wherever U.S.

forces went, Spam followed and in places across the world once rav- aged by war, like South Korea, Oki- nawa and Guam to name a few, the luncheon meat has a presence in pop culture, pantry shelves and public health statistics. Spam on Guam U.S. forces bombed Guam for days in the recapture of the island, and in doing so devastated the land, much of which was either dense jungle or arable farmland, accord- ing to Guam Preservation Trust board member and historian Dave Lotz. Adding to the destruction was the fact that, while CHamoru fam- ilies sought to rebuild their lives af- ter the war, U.S. scrambled to turn as much as two-thirds of the island into military installations.

In the process, entire villages were displaced and the capacity for once self-sustaining family groups to live the land was drastically re- duced. pre-war landscape was predominantly agricultural and un- Lotz said. military use of the land for bases was the primary factor of losing agricultural land and a change to canned goods, along with CHamorus being refu- gees on their own CHamoru experience CHamoru poet Craig Santos Pe- rez has won 14 awards throughout his career for his portrayals of his experiences as an indigenous per- son and commentary on social and political issues. In 2010 Perez wrote car- bon footprint in which he ex- presses at great length his love for the canned food. has a place not only in the stomachs of people, but in our hearts as well.

Here Spam is considered a gourmet luxury and is often presented as a gift at birth- days, weddings, and Pe- rez wrote. even made a Hot and Spicy Spam especially formu- lated for Guam with Tabasco al- ready added to And yet, in other line Perez writes, end result can be found in the obituary pages. In 2004, Public Health reported that heart disease was the leading cause of death on Guam, represent- ing 33.7% of Commenting from his residence in Hawaii earlier this month, the University of Hawaii Manoa faculty member shared his perspectives on Spam. is an invasive settler food and a weapon of mass consump- tion. The destruction it has caused to our diets and physical health is yet another negative impact of global American Perez said.

nearly every CHamoru, Hawaiian, and Islander fam- ily (including my own) has been af- fected by settler foods and gastro- colonialism. The rates of diabetes and obesity are rising across the Pa- faster than the sea According to the Department of Public Health and Social Services, the youngest person on Guam with type-II diabetes a degenerative disease that normally per- sons in their 40s is 5 years old; and rates of its occurrence among minors are steadily increasing. Outreach this past year have focused on diabetes preven- tion for youth, and for good reason. Thirty percent of high school students on Guam are considered obese, followed by 20 percent among middle school students among adults, that is at 64 percent. now seeing 20-year-olds in dialysis, and health complica- tions stemming from diabetes are happening at an earlier said Patrick Luces, a program coor- dinator with the Health Depart- ment.

Luces said canned foods and a lack of physical activity were the causes of the health crisis and encourages residents to make healthier food choices. But for the majority of island res- idents, particularly CHamorus and other Islander communities, this may not be so simple as the dis- ease is mostly prevalent among lower-income residents with fewer food options. been forced into a state of reliance on canned foods, and our resources have been stripped Nangauta said. in a situation where our people are sick. This is not According to the Spam website, appetite for the canned product is with an average consumption of about 16 cans per person.

Several organizations including Time and Food Network report that this is the highest consumption of Spam per capita. A way forward As the number of dialysis centers on Guam grow to staggering num- bers for the population of about 160,000, obvious some- thing must be done at multiple lev- els to address rates of non-commu- nicable diseases related to con- sumption of processed foods, like Spam. diabetes can have a ripple on the rest of your health. It can lead to heart disease, strokes, he said. it also has a domino on the economy.

In 2017, governments spent $6 million on dialysis ser- vices on Guam alone. In twenty years, half of our workforce could be wiped out because of diseases stemming from diabetes. As it stands right now, doctors are al- ready performing one amputation each Regional data indicates deaths from heart disease occur between the ages of 35 and 65 for some Pacif- ic Islander communities, resulting in generations of broken homes, ac- cording to Radio NZ coverage. Apart from her work as a farm manager at the University of Guam Triton Farm, Nangauta takes to the soil in her personal life to feed her three children. community has greatly because of emergency foods, and we need to reconnect the community back to the ways of the Nangauta said.

children need to know where their food comes from to make healthier choices. Spam may have been intro- duced to our culture. But culture is constantly changing; and we can change The UOG Triton Farm a number of community programs to help persons learn about natural farming. For more information, contact Nangauta at 686-6980. Spam Continued from Page 2 A major two car collision on Route 10A, past Restaurant on Airport Road, closed lanes going towards the airport Sunday after- noon.

One man involved in the crash was transported to Guam Memorial Hospital. Guam Fire Department units ar- rived at the scene at 3:18 p.m. in re- sponse to a 911 call reporting an auto accident with major injuries, ac- cording to GFD spokesperson Che- rika Chargualaf. The cause of accident was not stated. 1 injured in two-car collision on Route 10A in Barrigada Anumita Kaur and Frank San Nicolas Pacific Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK Guam Police Department officers investigate the scene of a two-car collision involving a Honda CR-V and a Nissan Frontier on Route 10A in Barrigada on Sunday.

FRANK SAN NICOLAS.