Pacific Food

"Although the diversity and expansiveness of the Pacific region makes this a monumental task, a food guide that reflects the traditional foods of the Pacific in relation to the US Dietary Guidelines, more specifically MyPlate, was needed. The Pacific Food Guide was developed by the Children’s Healthy Living Program (CHL) for Remote and Underserved Minorities of the Pacific Region. CHL is a partnership among the remote Pacific jurisdictions of Alaska, American Samoa, CNMI, RMI, the Republic of Palau, FSM, Guam, and Hawai‘i to study child obesity among Pacific children, ages 2-8 years. The Pacific Food Guide is freely available and was developed to assist with teaching introductory nutrition at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. It allows readers to explore the traditional foods of the Pacific in relation to both dietary guideline systems, USDA and SPC. Since foods of the Pacific cross over multiple categories of both the MyPlate and SPC Dietary Guidelines, foods are organized into 3 neutral categories: Walks along the Ground (animals), Chosen from the Sea (seafood), and Grown from the Ground (plants)."