"He kai he rongoā, he rongoā he kai".
Food as medicine, medicine as food.
‘For Māori, we need to go back to the way we ate before, simply because the way we were brought up was with things natural. Kai that is here. Our bodies can’t hack [corporate takeaways]. Our DNA says go back to the old ways.’
Mike Taylor nō Ngāti Kahungunu
'I’d love to eat and cook healthy and know the difference between a good meal and a plate of food. You can think you’re eating healthy but you’re actually not.'
Louise Pineaha nō Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Pāhauwera
As indigenous people we decolonise our diet when we return to our traditional kai. Highly processed foods high in refined cane sugar, wheat flour, salt and fat are recent introductions to our diet and does not support our wellbeing in the same way as the unprocessed whole foods of our tīpuna. Providing information about the whakapapa of our kai, the nutritional values of healthy kai and sharing recipe ideas for how to prepare kai are important aspects of Mai Kai.
