Being Māori is the best part about me and my journey through food and being “The PlantBasedMāori” has opened up a way of living that allows me to positively contribute to something bigger than myself.

I once learnt that in order to grow as an individual, the boundaries of perceived comfort zones needed to be tested or breached. In 2018 I implemented this understanding by setting new challenges every month that would provoke breakthroughs, breakdowns, lessons and new opportunities to develop myself as a person. Those challenges included, doing 100 press ups every day of the month, going takeaway free for a month, learn a new word, learn a whakatauki or proverb, go vegetarian for a month and then vegan for a month. Somewhere along the journey my identity and state of consciousness shifted and the process of unlearning started to unfold. It was my journey through veganism that provided the profound realisations and uncovered the truth of the deeper meaning that the food on our plates actually have.

I believe the food choices that are made on a day to day basis matter, especially if this is viewed through a long-term perspective. How will this meal contribute to my health when I am 80 years old? If I consume this meat or dairy product what will the state of the land and waterways be like for the generations to follow? How many more animals need to be slaughtered for human consumption? It was these questions that guided me to believe that choice I made to only consume plant-based foods enables me to positively contribute to something bigger than myself.

BIOGRAPHY
Raniera Rewiri, is a young māori male vegan. He whakapapa to Te Whakatohea, Tūhoe, Te Arawa and Ngāpuhi but grew up in the small-town community of Whakatane. What drives him is Te Ao Māori, hauora, self-development, entrepreneurship and growth.

Like many medical graduates of my era, I grew up with the notion that saturated fat should be avoided and that eating this substance would lead me and my patients down the road to cardiovascular disease and early death. Since that time, and since studying epidemiology, I have re-examined the evidence for dietary interventions. I found compelling evidence that sugar damaged teeth, widened waist lines and laid down fat in the pancreas, liver and blood vessels. I have also been introduced to the growing evidence that shows that refined starches are problematic, particularly for individuals who are insulin resistant. I contrasted this evidence with that for avoiding saturated fat and found a profound difference in strength of evidence. In this talk, I will compare and contrast the evidence for these three dietary interventions. I will draw upon both my own and others published research.

BIOGRAPHY
Simon Thornley is a Public Health Physician, lecturer and researcher in the section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. My research interests include epidemiological methods, low carbohydrate and low sugar approaches to diet, and the link between scabies and important diseases of childhood, such as acute rheumatic fever. Outside of work, I like to fix and ride bicycles, and I dabble in computing and electronics projects.