The Whakapapa Connection To A Tangled Web

In a belated nod to Men’s Health Week, Whole Food Living editor Peter Barclay has issued a personal plea to all Kiwi blokes to look seriously at what they eat.

In an online piece released on Sunday, Barclay covers what made him decide to change his diet and includes some interesting online links that enable readers to understand his genetic predisposition to ill-health.

“I know, when it comes down to a medical event like a heart attack, stroke, diabetes perhaps, and even prostate cancer, many of us tend to raise the subject of our genetic heritage,” he says. “In my case, I can show that while genetics probably played their part, I’ve since discovered that my health isn’t pre-determined by the cards my ancestors dealt me.”

Barclay says he has an issue with men “excusing their own ill-health because they believe that a bit of heart palpation or a high blood pressure reading is simply a matter of fate.

“You might think I’m pointing the finger at everyone else, but that’s far from the case. I’m staring in my own mirror here, and I can honestly say you are looking at me. When considering what critically contributed to my ill-health, I was just as pig-headed as the next bloke.”

Barclay says it wasn’t that the subject of ‘more healthy eating’ was banned from the table, but he does admit to a certain Jake the Muss attitude regarding what was put there.

“The real problem was the fact that I just didn’t listen. I didn’t blame my ancestors for some bad genetic bullets, but I failed to listen to people close to me. Looking back on it now, I think the strange thing was how I compartmentalised the whole thing in my mind.”

His online piece covers the whakapapa connection to his genetic history and reveals the shocking background that made it happen.

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