After medical school and studying nutrition at Harvard University, Dr. Terry Shintani returned home to Hawai'i with a sense that local people needed to return to their traditional native diet for both health and spiritual reasons.
Called the Wai'anae Diet, Shintani's eating plan eschewed popular calorie-restrictive diet approaches. Shintani advocated replacing high-fat, high-cholesterol, processed foods with more nutritious pre-contact Hawaiian fare — fresh vegetables, lean meat, whole foods — to help combat obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other conditions for which Native Hawaiians have become at high risk. Just as significant, the program also emphasized cultural sensitivity and group support in a holistic approach consistent with Hawaiian traditions.
In 1991, the results of the pilot study were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, leading to a surge of national and international interest in the program.
Shintani has since refined aspects of the program in "The Hawai'i Diet" and other publications, and his name has become synonymous with effective weight loss. In 2000, the Zippy's chain of restaurants introduced a menu of "Shintani Cuisine," and other restaurants have expanded on the program's principles.
The Wai'anae Diet was one of the earliest and most prominent local health initiatives to attempt to integrate Western and Pacific traditions, and an example of how successful the Hawaiian Renaissance had been in bringing about a reconsideration of the value of Native Hawaiian practices.
Over the years, such culturally sensitive approaches have proved effective in a variety of areas, from ho'oponopono-based conflict resolution to exercise programs that use hula movements.
Shintani himself spearheaded a program that brought Native Hawaiian healers into community health centers and designed a plan for a new prison that would offer a holistic Hawaiian approach to rehabilitating substance abusers.
