I learned a lot more about the history of both diabetes and traditional Indigenous diets than I expected to learn through my research. One of the most interesting sources I found was on the history of diabetes. I learned that polyuria was found by Egyptians in 1500 BC in what they called the sugar disease.[1] Diabetes was named by the Greek in 164 AD, and Mellitus was added to it later when they discovered sugar in the urine.[2] This source also gave many examples of how the diet of diabetics was altered over time in attempts to treat the disease. Diets varied from being heavy in fats and pastries to being quite sparse, consisting mainly of bread, milk and barley water.[3]

Another source I found particularly interesting was in Mary-Ellen Kelm’s Colonizing Bodies. Her essay is written about the traditional diet of BC First Nations. I found it interesting that the traditional diet for them, being high in fats and proteins, was similar to some of the later recommended diets for diabetics mentioned in “History of Diabetes.”[4]

 

[1] Kathryn M. King and Greg Rubin, “History of Diabetes: From Antiquity to Discovering Insulin,” British Journal of Nursing, 2003, vol. 12, no. 13, 1091.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid., 1092.

[4] Mary Ellen Kelm, “’My People Are Sick, My Young Men are Angry’: The Impact of Colonization on Aboriginal Diet and Nutrition,” Colonizing Bodies, UBC Press, 1998, 21.