“One of every two Latino children born in the U.S. in the year 2000 will get diabetes.”

That sobering statistic, from Cecilia Pozo Fileti, RD, of Ann Arbor-based Latino Health Communications, riveted the attention of attendees at the Latin American Diet Summit in Mexico City last month. “We must adapt the rich Latino cultural and culinary traditions to create solutions that work with today’s urbanized Latino lifestyle,” said Oldways President K. Dun Gifford.

The three-day conference, which attracted health professionals, culinary experts, food industry executives, and media from both the U.S. and Latin America, explored the health problems – especially obesity and diabetes – that disproportionately plague urbanized Latinos, both in their native lands and here at home. Hispanics, according to speaker Roberto Ramirez of the US Census Bureau, are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, so all of us benefit from understanding their needs.

Doctors and nutrition experts speaking at the conference presented compelling evidence that the health problems increasingly faced by Latinos can be tied to the population’s move away from the varied traditional diet of their ancestors to one that includes a limited range of nutrients in supersize portions. “Even twenty years ago, there would be 43 kinds of mushrooms and 73 different leafy greens at a provincial market here in Mexico,” explained Dr. Adolfo Chavez, Chief of Mexico City’s Salvidor Zubiran Medical Sciences and Nutrition Institute. “Today, we get many forms of a very limited variety of foods” added his wife Dr. Miriam Chavez, a senior nutrition investigator in her own right.

A marvelous group of chefs demonstrated the variety of flavors, colors and textures available in the traditional diets of Central and South America and the Caribbean, creating dishes that were then served to us at lunch each day. Elisabeth Luard, author of The Latin American Kitchen, took us on an encyclopedic tour of ingredients and spices. Paul O’Connell of Chez Henri in Cambridge shared Cuban recipes, while chef and cookbook author Maricel Presilla of Zafra and Chucharamama restaurants in New York brewed up a centuries-old Mexican chocolate drink.

Donna Shields, author of Caribbean Light, and Steve Petusevksy, owner of Chef Steve’s Carried Away in Weston, FL, showed how traditional foods can be adapted to modern tastes and time constraints in healthy and delicious ways. Zarela Martinez of Zarela Restaurant in New York City and Patricia Quintana of Mexico City led us in an exploration of foods from their native Mexico, and Patricia also hosted the conference’s Gala Dinner at her trendy but traditional Mexico City restaurant, Ixote. The passion of all these chefs and their excellent presentation skills brought the merits of traditional Latino diets to life on the plate.

The main focus of the conference, however, was on solutions. Scientific co-chair Hannia Campos, of the Harvard School of Public Health, herself a native of Costa Rica, said it best when she stated, “As scientists we like to think that science is the hard part. But truly, social action is the hard part.” John Foreyt of Baylor College of Medicine’s Behavioral Medicine Research Center, echoed Hannia’s view in a presentation that outlined some of the challenges presented in changing consumer behavior.

Oldways conferences are known for their strong outcomes, and the Latin American Diet Summit was no exception. Scientists invited to speak at our conferences look forward to serious intellectual give-and-take, in a series of on-site committee meetings before and during the conference aimed at creating a blueprint for change and progress after the event. Click here to read the complete Scientific Consensus Statement from the Latin American Diet Summit.

Even the strongest statement is just a prelude to programs and action, however. Before the Summit ended, Charter Sponsor Mission Foods stunned conference attendees and organizers with a pledge to provide $100,000 as seed money to form a Latino Nutrition Coalition to carry out the goals of the Consensus Statement. The California Almond Board, another sponsor of the conference, also pledged to contribute. We thank Mission and the Almond Board – along with our other conference sponsors the United States Potato Board, Barilla of Mexico, the Peanut Institute, InfoAmericas and the USA Rice Federation – for their support.

If your company would like to join the Coalition to help promote Hispanic health and nutrition, please contact Sara Baer-Sinnott at 617.896-4848 or email sara@oldwayspt.org.