Enjoy this episode with Denee Bex, MPH, RD, CDCES, an award-winning registered dietitian and owner of Tumbleweed Nutrition.
Through Tumbleweed Nutrition, Denee works to celebrate cultural foods, partner with local Native-owned farms, and increase food access in tribal communities. She shares her passion for integrating indigenous foods into healthcare and the importance of building relationships with community partners. Denee also provides insights into traditional foods like blue corn and their significance in Native culture.
Don't miss this inspiring episode that sheds light on the intersection of nutrition, culture, and Native American community.
Website: tumbleweednutrition.com
Instagram: @tumbleweed_nutrition; link: https://www.instagram.com/tumbleweed_nutrition/
LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denee-bex-mph-rd-ld-cdces-701b68136
Facebook: Tumbleweed Nutrition; link: https://www.facebook.com/TumbleweedNutrition/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:42):
Information only. I am Sarah Thompson-Fajera, Registered Dietitian,
Integrative and Functional Nutrition Certified Practitioner,
and your host for this podcast.
Denae Becks is an award-winning registered dietitian and CDCES from the Denae
(01:03):
Navajo Nation and is the owner of Tumbleweed Nutrition LLC,
a nutrition education consultant company.
She teaches her Native community about nutrition without judgment.
Denae provides inclusive and evidence-based nutrition education for organizations
which honor American Indian heritage.
(01:26):
In terms of disclosures, Denae does receive grants from the Kellogg Foundation
and is a consultant for Biddy Baby Foods.
Denae, hi there. Thanks for taking time to be here with us.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Really excited to dive into this conversation
with you. I know you have a lot to share with us.
(01:49):
So we want to begin with your own professional journey.
We want to hear a bit about how you developed into the dietitian,
into the nutrition professional who you are today.
Yeah, yeah. I'm happy to share my journey. So just to introduce myself.
(02:20):
And that was just me introducing myself and my four clans. I am Navajo.
I'm from the Navajo Reservation.
And I am a dietitian. I've been a dietitian since 2018.
And I got my bachelor's from Arizona State University.
And I got my master's in public health from New Mexico State University.
(02:42):
And, you know, I feel like I'm a little bit of a late bloomer.
I didn't become a dietitian until I was like 33. three.
But prior to that, you know, I'm really thankful for my experience.
I mean, it's always been clinical related, but now I'm in a little bit of a
different capacity, but I primarily work as a dietitian.
I work in my own Navajo community and, and, you know, I, I got interested in
(03:09):
becoming a dietitian because after I got my bachelor's, I went to work back
home on the reservation.
And I noticed that there weren't many medical professionals who look like me.
And I, after I graduated from ASU, I was convinced that I was never going to become a dietitian.
(03:31):
One, because I didn't have the grades, but two, it just, I, it just seemed like a lot of work.
And, and after going through all those science courses, I think I was a little bit burnt out.
And but when I went back home, I realized that we needed a lot more representation,
especially when, you know, especially when we needed we need more medical professionals
(03:52):
who reflect the community and who are familiar with the community.
And so I thought, hey, you know what? I have the foundation to become a dietitian.
Like I had my courses, my DPD courses,
and I just kind of had to figure out, okay, how can I get into an internship
and how can I move towards becoming a dietitian to hopefully start to reflect some of that,
(04:16):
some of my own community and be in my own community in a position of power, essentially,
because not many of our patients really see that in the hospitals or in the
clinics. So that's a little bit about me.
I think I went further into your question, but yeah, that's my background.
(04:36):
That's great. Long version is good.
We want to know all the juicy details.
So at that time when you made that decision, what kind of presence was there
in your community in terms of nutrition education?
Did you see there were some professionals who were providing that and where
did you feel like the disconnect may have been?
(04:58):
Well, in terms of nutrition education, many, when we're talking about providing
health care on their reservation, in rural communities,
in rural Native communities, often the providers don't reflect the community.
(05:28):
Mm-hmm. they aren't native and oftentimes there's that disconnect and there
really isn't any room for that,
that cultural discussion about how cultural foods can fit into,
you know, disease management or, you know, promoting healthcare behaviors.
And so the disconnect is always, you know, when I would talk to patients or
(05:50):
my community, they would be like, oh, I'm going to get referred to the dietician.
They're just going to tell me to like eat sandwiches. And when we got a butcher
sheep and what what do I do that day?
And so like realistic things. And of course, the dieticians,
they don't really have this, you know, familiar familiarity.
(06:11):
That's a that's a hard word. But and so it kind of creates this disconnect of like,
you know, dietitians are or the information that the dietitian is going to give
me isn't going to really align with with what I actually do during the day and
my my reality grocery stores or having like.
(06:32):
Living in an area where I don't have access to water, running water, indoor plumbing.
And so that's where, you know, I, I was getting frustrated as well too,
because when I would say, okay, we'll refer you to the dietician.
Cause before I became a dietician, I used to work as a diabetes health coach.
Essentially it was a diabetes educator just without the pay because,
(06:55):
you know, I was even managing medications.
That's how far it was.
But, you know, I was concerned that when I did refer people to the dietician
that they still wouldn't really get enough value to apply to their lives.
They might not still have the information that they needed to make their real world situation work.
(07:20):
Right. Right. And so that's, that's where I felt like kind of a call to action,
you know, when I was like, you know what, I have, I have the background to, to pursue this.
Just, it got to the point where I, you know, I just got frustrated enough to
be like, okay, well, I guess I'll do it.
And so how, how did you personally become aware of that connection between food and health too?
(07:45):
You know, many different things. When, before I decided to go to ASU for,
and major in nutrition, I actually wanted to be a chef.
And I've, I've always just like cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.
And, you know, as in high school, I used to just cook for my family and make up recipes.
Some of them didn't turn out, didn't turn out well.
(08:08):
That was before I knew about frameworks and you know culinary standard culinary practices,
but you know I that was just
something I always enjoyed doing you know I still enjoy doing it
when when I'm bored I like to look up a recipe and
try to cook and improvise on it but I
I wanted to go to chef school and as
(08:31):
we all know chef school is incredibly expensive and I
grew up in a family of seven we were pretty low
income and I just didn't want to put that responsibility on
my family to feel like they have to support me during that whole time and and
at the time I was offered scholarships to ASU and so I was like well I guess
(08:52):
I'll go to ASU because that's you know a little bit more it made more sense
financially for me and my family and and in school.
I didn't decide on a major until like two years, for like two years.
So I was just essentially floating for two years because, you know,
I really wanted to work with food, but I just, I didn't know that there was
(09:14):
a nutrition major for two years because I had, I had no reference point, nobody around me.
I didn't know anybody around me who was a dietitian or, you know,
who even worked in the medical profession.
Yeah. Oftentimes in high school, you know,
we were, you know, we, the options we were given were very much things like,
(09:37):
oh, you can be cosmetologists or a CNA or a dental assistant,
you know, and nothing wrong with those choices, but, you know,
we didn't really explore some of those, you know, more rigorous courses of study.
So I just, I just didn't have really any reference points. So once I found out,
(09:57):
about the nutrition major, I was like, that's what I want to do.
That seems really good. Of course, right.
Yeah. Yeah. And I remember like reading, you know, in some of my early classes,
like, you know, food can change our, you know, our bodies and our molecular
structure and our functions. And I was like, that's really cool.
Like the things we put in our mouth can like have us, can just make us feel better.
(10:21):
And, and so that's kind of how I got into, to diet, becoming a dietitian.
And like I said, after I got done with The Bachelors, I was like,
I'm never doing it. So I was just like wishy-washy, flippy-floppy. Yeah, yeah.
And so bringing this kind of fascination with the culinary piece,
marrying it with what you were learning about how food could impact our bodies,
(10:45):
the representation, and this all just started to come together for you.
And you in your day-to-day work, you are doing some really unique things.
Things. So can you tell us a bit about the type of, you know,
on an individual or community basis, the type of things that you're engaging in professionally?
(11:06):
Are you doing a lot of counseling with people? Are you doing more advocacy work?
What does that look like for you?
So I was a clinical dietitian for the past like five years.
And, you know, when I, When I got my RD credential, I was like,
(11:26):
I'm never going to go into clinical.
And if I was, it was two years tops. And so I got my credential in 2018.
Happened two years later. We all know what happened two years later.
Oh, that's right. It's 2020, the pandemic.
That's right. And at the very beginning of 2020, I was like,
(11:47):
well, Danae, it's getting up on two years. you need to go back to community
because community nutrition is just so fun to me.
During my internship, I had a really great time. I just like talking with community
and doing cooking classes and doing like all this recipe development and curriculum
development and presentation development.
And so clinical really wasn't, you know, a place for me to do as much of that.
(12:10):
Yeah, yeah, I can do some, but it wasn't like, it wasn't the main focus.
It was a lot of It was just like answering referrals, as we all know,
and nothing wrong with that.
Like clinical dietitians, they are my heroes, but I am not one of them.
So 2020 came and I was like, okay, you need to start looking for community nutrition positions.
(12:31):
And there really aren't a lot on the reservation. I still wanted to work for my Navajo community.
And there really isn't any options in the tribal area because...
Really, the only way you can be a dietitian if on the reservation is you work
for the Indian Health Service. Okay.
(12:52):
And the Indian Health Service, they only have two positions, essentially.
It's either clinical dietitian, either outpatient or inpatient, or community.
And community, you know, me getting in the door with community, it was a lot harder.
And I needed to do something for fun. So while I was in the hospital or while
(13:14):
I was working as an outpatient dietitian,
I started up my company and it started out as a side hustle in 2021 because
I was just getting too antsy.
And so, you know, after seeing 10 patients a day, I was like,
oh, I get to go home and create this presentation.
I was like so excited. Okay. And this is Tumbleweed Nutrition, right?
(13:38):
Yeah, this is my company, Tumbleweed Nutrition. So, now I've, you know, it's 2024 now.
So, it's been three years in existence.
For about half of that, it was a side hustle.
So, I talked with my boss. I told him, like, hey, can I work 410?
So, on my day off, I can work on my company. And he was like, okay.
(14:00):
So I kind of had that that conversation
and I did stuff on the weekends and
I really built up a foundation for myself because I knew
eventually one day that was going to be my ticket out that was going to be my
way out so I just needed to hang on hang on for a few years and then I'll have
(14:20):
a good enough base have a good enough client base to kind of go out on my own and so I got to
a point where I was working like 80 hours a week, if you include my business stuff.
And I was like, this is not sustainable to me.
Like I was burning out. Oh yeah. And I got to the decision where I just had to leave.
(14:41):
It was either stay in clinical or, um.
Pursue my company. And so pursuing my company, like I said, I'm a community
nutrition at heart, and that's what this, my company was, just community nutrition.
So now, you know, my goal is to work with, really work, really work on increasing
(15:02):
access for food, to food in tribal communities is, and it's also about celebrating our cultural foods.
Because often my patients would be ashamed for eating their cultural foods.
And that's for various reasons. Some of it is because, you know,
medical professionals would be like, oh, you have to stay away from this food,
(15:23):
this cultural food, like corn or sheep or mutton or don't eat this.
And it was a lot of it was like based in fear mongering around our cultural foods.
And so as I'm, you know, as I created my company, I was like,
you know, I want to make sure that cultural foods are something that's to be celebrated.
And so I also work with local native owned farms so that I can,
(15:48):
you know, use their product and just be with them and support them in their work they're doing.
Because, you know, I came to a realization and I've kind of already known it all along is like,
you know, when we're talking about, you know, chronic condition management,
like diabetes or heart disease, if a community doesn't have access to food?
(16:11):
You know, how are they going to make these quote-unquote healthy food choices
if there's no access at all?
And so for me as a dietician, it's just not enough to say to –.
Say, go eat healthy foods or do presentations or healthy foods when there's no food access.
And on the reservation, there's about 13 grocery stores and the land base is
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about the size of West Virginia.
So it's a food desert.
USDA has called Navajo Nation a food desert because there's no grocery stores.
And so that's kind of the work I do with my business is trying to partner with
local farmers and also connecting local farmers to,
(16:58):
to schools who are, who have a primary, uh,
native population, native student population as well.
And so now I do like presentations, cooking classes, curriculum development.
I partner with grant organizations or grants working on, on the tribal,
in tribal communities, just so, you know,
(17:19):
I can make sure that there's a dietician present
because there's you know there's definitely a huge movement
towards incorporating more of our
indigenous foods into our our
health and really this whole movement they call it the food sovereignty movement
it really hasn't been a huge thing until like the last 10 or 20 years prior
(17:44):
to that it was like you know just boring nutrition education like sandwiches and salads.
And now the last 10 or 20 years,
the USDA and other federal partners and nonprofit partners have been really
pushing towards funding for incorporating more cultural or indigenous foods
(18:06):
into nutrition education and Native communities.
And what was missing seeing was, was a dietician presence.
Sure. Whenever I would see a lot of these, yeah.
And, and whenever I'd see these programs out there.
Talking about cultural foods and indigenous foods, they were doing amazing work,
(18:26):
you know, doing community gardens in their home, doing like,
you know, more native friendly approaches or interventions.
One thing that was missing was dietitian, a dietitian.
Yep, yep. And so for me, it's important for me to, again, have that not only
Native representation,
but also have that dietetic background as well and make sure that,
(18:50):
you know, any nutrition interventions,
just making sure that they're also, you know, evidence-based and they're just,
you know, not too biased.
As we know nutrition is very personal and sometimes
people who are leading programs may
(19:11):
allow their biases to come into play and so definitely that's where you know
i feel like it's important to have that dietetic dietitian representation in
some of these programs too so yeah that's kind of just to sum it all up that's
what i've that's what i've been doing this last year and a half.
And I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but back in, did I?
(19:33):
December 2022, that's when I left my clinical job. Okay. Going around. Congratulations.
And it sounds like you've really created a beautiful kind of just mixed portfolio
of things to keep yourself busy and kind of building connections and being really,
really deeply present in the community.
(19:55):
Sounds It sounds like you just tried to really embed yourself and it's a beautiful
thing. What a great story.
Yeah. And, and my, I have a little slogan, if you don't know,
but my slogan is connecting indigenous nutrition and community.
And I think that's, what's missing from a lot of mainstream nutrition education
(20:18):
interventions in Native communities is, is there,
you know, we need to make more of that connection between community partners and our interventions.
Like, it's important to build those relationships with community,
our community, before we put in interventions.
And so it's, that's why I'm very adamant about, you know, going out to a farm
(20:42):
and pulling weeds for them.
That's why I'm very adamant about going to schools and just doing tours.
And so it's really about building relationships because I think that's,
you know, in tribal communities, that's what we need.
And that's why, you know, early on I introduced myself with the four clans is
because that's how we connect.
(21:04):
That's how we understand our background.
And so when I go out to my own community in Navajo and even with other non-Navajo
tribal communities, you know, I still try to introduce myself in my clans.
Just to make sure like, you know, people know this is where I'm coming from.
(21:24):
So. Yeah. And so some of the, the foods and food traditions that,
that you've really aimed to,
bring some recognition around or celebrate, tell us a little bit more about those.
What are some of the, the ways of eating that you feel like are really characteristic
(21:47):
of some of these more indigenous food ways, so to speak, in the community that
you're in? Yeah, definitely.
You know, growing up, my grandma taught us how to, you know, plant corn.
And so corn for natives is a very important food for, I would say,
(22:08):
I hate to make generalizations, but I'd say like all native tribes have a very heavy emphasis on corn.
Well, just depending on where the region is, but I'm from the Southwest region,
but there are many tribes who use corn in not just, you know,
the food that they eat, but also in ceremonies, like in the Nauvoo community,
(22:31):
corn is very heavily used in different ceremonies, corn pollen,
different parts of the corn is used.
And so that's, you know, something that's important to celebrate is because,
Because, you know, in Western medicine and in the healthcare system,
it's, you know, people would say corn is, you should limit corn and don't eat the corn.
(22:57):
You know, it's not good for you.
You know, all these different things about corn. But, you know,
when you say that to a Native person, it's not just, they don't hear it as like, okay,
you know, sometimes it can be heard as a little offensive when people say that.
(23:17):
Because with Native communities, plants and animals and food that we eat can
sometimes be considered as relatives or family members.
And so when you say that about corn, it's like you're trying to tell people
to limit time with your friend.
(23:38):
And so, you know, it's so that's, you know, one significant food that our communities have is corn.
And, you know, as as I've done many presentations over the past year and a half on.
I found out through my research was that 60% of the current global food supply
(24:01):
actually has indigenous American roots.
And that's just something that's not talked about. Like you think about all
these foods for other ethnicities or races, and a lot of those foods are traced
back to indigenous communities like potatoes.
Sometimes you think, oh, that's an Irish food. No, that's an indigenous food
(24:24):
that was, you know, traded centuries ago,
but it was indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica and South America who developed
that food. Same thing with corn.
You know, people think, oh, polenta is an Italian food. And I'm like,
no, that's a native food.
So there's so many foods out there, chocolate, peppers that have these indigenous roots.
(24:50):
Fruits but we just don't talk about it so it's like you know a lot of the food
is indigenous food it's just you know over the years over the centuries those
those roots have just been lost so now it's about kind of reclaiming the like
these foods reclaiming our relatives and saying like hey,
that's our long lost relative that we have to reclaim same thing with like chia
(25:13):
seeds i didn't No chia seeds were an indigenous food. I wouldn't have known that either, no.
They were, they are collected by, you know, many of the California tribes, including Chumash.
And, and yeah, that's.
You know, when you think chia, like
you think of, you know, lady making a smoothie in her very fancy house.
(25:36):
And you're not thinking of it as like, okay, tribal community is collecting
this from the flowers that are in the local forest.
Yeah. And I saw on your Instagram account, there was a recipe with blue corn.
Is there significance to the blue corn specifically? Yeah.
Yeah. Blue corn is like, blue corn is our poster child for Southwest tribes.
(26:02):
The Hopi originally developed blue corn, the blue, and through like trade among
the tribes pre-contact, you know, we've all developed our own strains.
You know, with Navajo, we have like Navajo robin's egg blue corn.
There's the original Hopi corn. There's like hundreds of blue corn strains that are out there.
(26:23):
And so blue corn is a native corn that is more nutrient dense.
It's higher in carbohydrates, higher in fiber, higher in protein than corn you
would get from the grocery store like sweet corn.
But we use it as a staple, like, you know, with East Asian people,
(26:47):
with rice, with the European people and wheat.
Native corn, including blue corn, is like our staple carbohydrate.
Carbohydrate so yeah many many of my recipes actually include blue corn and
i work with one or two native producers of blue corn and so whenever i work
(27:09):
with like non-native entities who want to incorporate more indigenous foods i say you know part of and.
Understanding this whole food system is also making sure that we are supporting Native producers.
And so I connect, you know, some Native producers to my clients and my clients
buy, you know, the product.
(27:31):
So when I'm doing cooking classes, you know, it's kind of like a whole system.
It's just, you know, it's a whole loop of support.
So, yeah, blue corn is definitely one of those foods that is very important to us.
And it's weaved in Navajo and many other Southwest tribes.
(27:52):
It's weaved into, you know, the spiritual beliefs as well. And it's connected
to creation stories of how we were created.
So for like Navajo, you know, I was reading in a book and definitely I'm not
a traditional, like, medicine man or medicine woman.
So they can correct me on this. but
(28:14):
but you know our our veins are blue
because of blue corn so that's kind of how it's weaved into a lot of a lot of
the stories about how we were created early on by the deities that speaks to
the significance within the cultural paradigm belief system and value system and.
(28:37):
Yeah. And all of that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's definitely the conversation
that we're missing when we do these nutrition interventions,
either on a, you know, like personal basis,
one-on-one basis, or even like in a public health situation.
It's like we need to recognize that there's this emotional side to food.
(29:00):
And it's okay to have that emotional
side to food because that's how our ancestors practice it as well.
It's not just about feeding us physically, it's also feeding us emotionally
and spiritually, and that's okay.
And for often, you know, conventional nutrition education doesn't include that,
(29:21):
you know, emotional or spiritual side and honoring that.
When they do, we talk about emotional eating.
It's more from like a negative view.
Sure, sure, sure. You know, like, okay, you emotionally eat when you've got
to cope with these negative emotions.
Versus honoring and respecting food traditions. It's a totally different conversation. Yeah.
(29:44):
So some of the food producers that you're working with locally,
are there foods that you're finding they're able to give back to the community
that really are not available in the grocery stores or maybe that you felt like, wow,
people are really not able to access these specific indigenous traditional foods any other way?
(30:09):
Yeah yeah and at the
heart native native food producers
including farmers they know
that we don't have they just
know we don't have access to food they don't have we don't have access
to cultural foods or indigenous foods so that's that's their primary purpose
(30:30):
is to access to these traditional foods and and and they just they they know
it's healthy for our community And so often many of the producers are very much community focused.
In fact, that's the reason why they go into farming or producing food is because
(30:51):
they're focused on community, taking care of their community.
So, as tribal people, you know, food is love.
Food is a way to gather for us.
And so, when I work with producers, you know, we like to make sure if we're
going to be doing cooking classes on the farm, we want to make sure that our producers.
(31:16):
Cooking classes are accessible to the community. We don't charge for cooking classes.
We find another way to fund it, and that's primarily through grants.
Or we do like excursions where we do camping on the farm.
And so we're trying to increase access to a lot of these practices that many
people are just forgetting.
And maybe not forgetting also is we're losing,
(31:39):
I should say, too because of colonization and
westernization and globalization it's in the boarding
schools and we're just losing a lot of indigenous knowledge so you know that's
that's what I you know when I work with producers you know we were very passionate
about making sure that we're increasing access to these practices and what kinds
(32:01):
of foods tend to be the focus for them is it certain types of produce?
Is it grain? Is it corn?
What are you seeing they're putting a lot of their energy and focus into? Corn for sure.
And again, it really depends on the community.
There's like six or seven general regions in the United States.
(32:24):
And I'm talking about United States tribal regions. And,
you know, our food is developed, our food staples is based on what was available
to us, you know, back in the day, pre-contact.
And so it just really depends on the region. So for instance,
(32:45):
the Southwest region, like we're, we're very much focused on corn because our
environment is a desert environment.
It wasn't easy to go out and hunt and gather. So we, we had to turn to agriculture
to sustain our communities.
Communities whereas you know an area that has
more biodiversity there probably wasn't as
(33:05):
much of a need to go towards agriculture so somewhere
like the you know the oregon region like the northwest region or the northeast
region or the southeast region those are like you know they're classified as
jungles right and so there's a lot more biodiversity so maybe they didn't have
as this much dependency on agriculture.
(33:27):
Same way with the Great Lakes region. I just went to Minnesota last month because
the Fond du Lac community had invited me out there to help them out with an event.
And their region, yeah, they have corn, but their main staple would be wild rice.
And there's a lot of practices around wild rice and just like how corn was part
(33:53):
of our creation stories for Navajo, for the Ojibwe people or Anishinaabe people,
wild rice is that way for them.
Wild rice is very much part of their creation stories. And so I'm.
Yeah. You know, it just depends on the region. And so that's definitely something,
you know, in school when, you know, when I was going to dietetic school or to get my bachelor's,
(34:21):
like there really wasn't any discussion about that.
When it came to like the culture class for dietetics, it was like, oh,
Navajos are Native Americans that we're all either they're suffering from diabetes
and we're all fat or we all eat buffaloes and berries.
Those are the two choices that we had. And there really wasn't like this whole
(34:45):
conversation about, you know, the importance of cultural foods and this integration,
all of these different other things in, in native foods.
It was just like, you know, two, two choices.
And, and so, yeah, that was kind of, you know, That was, you know,
during my culture class, it was that cultural foods class.
(35:09):
I don't remember what they call it, but it definitely made me feel like there
needed to be more representation because,
you know, there's just a lot more complexity to how we deliver nutrition,
care to, you know, marginalized communities.
(35:30):
And so the same could be said for other marginalized communities with Black
community or Latinx community.
There's a lot more complexity that we need to bring to the table. Yeah. Yeah.
And it looks like your Instagram is super active. You're on there quite a bit.
So because this is, I mean, like the history and the nuance around this,
(35:53):
we could just talk for hours probably, right?
So I'm going to say, we're going to link up all your socials and things so people
can go and check it out and continue to learn.
But to wrap up this piece, is there just one recipe or one dish that you'd like
to share that's a favorite for you?
(36:14):
Hmm. I don't know.
You're asking me which child is my favorite.
And the one i can tell you the one
that's most requested because yeah i like to
blend like native foods into like foods
(36:36):
you'd be familiar with so one of my most popular
ones is the a banana walnut
blue corn pancake that's like by far the most popular one and that when i talk
about blue corn i talk about maple syrup being an indigenous food and different
ways to to source it from native producers to make sure we're supporting food
(36:59):
access for our native communities.
So that's my most popular one. Mm-hmm.
And, you know, maybe it's falling out of favor for me because I've had so many
classes that were pancakes.
I'm like, I'm done with baking.
Okay, but they just keep asking for more. Yeah, it's a good one.
(37:20):
They just keep asking for the pancakes.
But again, like, you know, if our elders would see that, they'd be like, what is this?
And so, you know, sometimes I like the traditional OG foods like kneel down
bread where you're getting like the early crop of white corn and you're grinding
it down into a paste and you're putting it into corn husks and you're roasting
(37:44):
it underground. the ground.
You know, my other favorite is Navajo cake in which that one is only made during
a coming of age ceremony.
So the only time I can eat that is when a girl is going through her coming of
age ceremony or her kenalda.
So that one I really relish because it's a very sacred food.
(38:06):
It's a very sacred food. And so it just, it just makes you feel really good.
Like you know the other food you know the what did
i say did i already say the traditional food the traditional og
recipe of blue corn mush um which
is not yet it's like polenta but it's a looser polenta and it's made with blue
corn great examples yeah so just uh again you know you're asking me about my
(38:34):
favorite child and it's hard to choose oh my goodness it's just it's just it's taste.
It's just a taste, right, of all that's there to explore.
All right, Denae. Well, I know, you know, you've got other obligations.
I want to respect your time.
I'd ask if we could just close with any recommendations that you have for professionals
(38:56):
who want to learn more about some of these food traditions you've been talking about.
Definitely. I would encourage dietitians to, you know, learn more about how
many tribal communities are in your state.
And to see if you can find any dietitians from those different tribal communities.
We are definitely unicorns. There's only about 500 of us native dietitians, but we're out there.
(39:21):
And, you know, to learn more, I definitely lean into a book I like to recommend is,
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer that really gives you an in-depth
look at how native people relate to food and plants.
And, yeah, I can go on about what resources to dig into because I think it's
(39:43):
really important to make sure that, you know, we're talking about our side,
our Native side of the story when it comes to food and nutrition.
So, yeah. All right. And definitely follow me on Instagram because,
you know, you'll see my travels as I go to different communities. Good, good.
And you speak, you present, so people can stay connected with you that way as well.
(40:04):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I have my website too, in which you can,
you know, download some, some products as well to kind of learn more about native communities.
And also recently I started offering a hopefully monthly CPE series where I
host, where I do like a webinar, a one hour webinar.
(40:25):
And I talk about different native nutrition issues.
Like February I did like native foods that support heart health because it was
heart health month. Oh, that's fabulous.
March, I did like, you know, what can we do as dietitians to support the food sovereignty movement.
And so I kind of just choose, you know, different, different things that intrigue me.
(40:46):
And, and I offer CPE for that as well.
Well fabulous no shortage of
resources from tumbleweed nutrition so thank you
thank you for sharing that you're doing really really great work congratulations
on the transition your professional transition to doing this full-time and thank
you so much for taking the time to share with us a little bit about about your
(41:10):
path yeah thank you for having me you're so welcome today take good care.
Music.
Music.
(00:42):
Information only. I am Sarah Thompson-Fajera, Registered Dietitian,
Integrative and Functional Nutrition Certified Practitioner,
and your host for this podcast.
Denae Becks is an award-winning registered dietitian and CDCES from the Denae
(01:03):
Navajo Nation and is the owner of Tumbleweed Nutrition LLC,
a nutrition education consultant company.
She teaches her Native community about nutrition without judgment.
Denae provides inclusive and evidence-based nutrition education for organizations
which honor American Indian heritage.
(01:26):
In terms of disclosures, Denae does receive grants from the Kellogg Foundation
and is a consultant for Biddy Baby Foods.
Denae, hi there. Thanks for taking time to be here with us.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Really excited to dive into this conversation
with you. I know you have a lot to share with us.
(01:49):
So we want to begin with your own professional journey.
We want to hear a bit about how you developed into the dietitian,
into the nutrition professional who you are today.
Yeah, yeah. I'm happy to share my journey. So just to introduce myself.
(02:20):
And that was just me introducing myself and my four clans. I am Navajo.
I'm from the Navajo Reservation.
And I am a dietitian. I've been a dietitian since 2018.
And I got my bachelor's from Arizona State University.
And I got my master's in public health from New Mexico State University.
(02:42):
And, you know, I feel like I'm a little bit of a late bloomer.
I didn't become a dietitian until I was like 33. three.
But prior to that, you know, I'm really thankful for my experience.
I mean, it's always been clinical related, but now I'm in a little bit of a
different capacity, but I primarily work as a dietitian.
I work in my own Navajo community and, and, you know, I, I got interested in
(03:09):
becoming a dietitian because after I got my bachelor's, I went to work back
home on the reservation.
And I noticed that there weren't many medical professionals who look like me.
And I, after I graduated from ASU, I was convinced that I was never going to become a dietitian.
(03:31):
One, because I didn't have the grades, but two, it just, I, it just seemed like a lot of work.
And, and after going through all those science courses, I think I was a little bit burnt out.
And but when I went back home, I realized that we needed a lot more representation,
especially when, you know, especially when we needed we need more medical professionals
(03:52):
who reflect the community and who are familiar with the community.
And so I thought, hey, you know what? I have the foundation to become a dietitian.
Like I had my courses, my DPD courses,
and I just kind of had to figure out, okay, how can I get into an internship
and how can I move towards becoming a dietitian to hopefully start to reflect some of that,
(04:16):
some of my own community and be in my own community in a position of power, essentially,
because not many of our patients really see that in the hospitals or in the
clinics. So that's a little bit about me.
I think I went further into your question, but yeah, that's my background.
(04:36):
That's great. Long version is good.
We want to know all the juicy details.
So at that time when you made that decision, what kind of presence was there
in your community in terms of nutrition education?
Did you see there were some professionals who were providing that and where
did you feel like the disconnect may have been?
(04:58):
Well, in terms of nutrition education, many, when we're talking about providing
health care on their reservation, in rural communities,
in rural Native communities, often the providers don't reflect the community.
(05:28):
Mm-hmm. they aren't native and oftentimes there's that disconnect and there
really isn't any room for that,
that cultural discussion about how cultural foods can fit into,
you know, disease management or, you know, promoting healthcare behaviors.
And so the disconnect is always, you know, when I would talk to patients or
(05:50):
my community, they would be like, oh, I'm going to get referred to the dietician.
They're just going to tell me to like eat sandwiches. And when we got a butcher
sheep and what what do I do that day?
And so like realistic things. And of course, the dieticians,
they don't really have this, you know, familiar familiarity.
(06:11):
That's a that's a hard word. But and so it kind of creates this disconnect of like,
you know, dietitians are or the information that the dietitian is going to give
me isn't going to really align with with what I actually do during the day and
my my reality grocery stores or having like.
(06:32):
Living in an area where I don't have access to water, running water, indoor plumbing.
And so that's where, you know, I, I was getting frustrated as well too,
because when I would say, okay, we'll refer you to the dietician.
Cause before I became a dietician, I used to work as a diabetes health coach.
Essentially it was a diabetes educator just without the pay because,
(06:55):
you know, I was even managing medications.
That's how far it was.
But, you know, I was concerned that when I did refer people to the dietician
that they still wouldn't really get enough value to apply to their lives.
They might not still have the information that they needed to make their real world situation work.
(07:20):
Right. Right. And so that's, that's where I felt like kind of a call to action,
you know, when I was like, you know what, I have, I have the background to, to pursue this.
Just, it got to the point where I, you know, I just got frustrated enough to
be like, okay, well, I guess I'll do it.
And so how, how did you personally become aware of that connection between food and health too?
(07:45):
You know, many different things. When, before I decided to go to ASU for,
and major in nutrition, I actually wanted to be a chef.
And I've, I've always just like cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.
And, you know, as in high school, I used to just cook for my family and make up recipes.
Some of them didn't turn out, didn't turn out well.
(08:08):
That was before I knew about frameworks and you know culinary standard culinary practices,
but you know I that was just
something I always enjoyed doing you know I still enjoy doing it
when when I'm bored I like to look up a recipe and
try to cook and improvise on it but I
I wanted to go to chef school and as
(08:31):
we all know chef school is incredibly expensive and I
grew up in a family of seven we were pretty low
income and I just didn't want to put that responsibility on
my family to feel like they have to support me during that whole time and and
at the time I was offered scholarships to ASU and so I was like well I guess
(08:52):
I'll go to ASU because that's you know a little bit more it made more sense
financially for me and my family and and in school.
I didn't decide on a major until like two years, for like two years.
So I was just essentially floating for two years because, you know,
I really wanted to work with food, but I just, I didn't know that there was
(09:14):
a nutrition major for two years because I had, I had no reference point, nobody around me.
I didn't know anybody around me who was a dietitian or, you know,
who even worked in the medical profession.
Yeah. Oftentimes in high school, you know,
we were, you know, we, the options we were given were very much things like,
(09:37):
oh, you can be cosmetologists or a CNA or a dental assistant,
you know, and nothing wrong with those choices, but, you know,
we didn't really explore some of those, you know, more rigorous courses of study.
So I just, I just didn't have really any reference points. So once I found out,
(09:57):
about the nutrition major, I was like, that's what I want to do.
That seems really good. Of course, right.
Yeah. Yeah. And I remember like reading, you know, in some of my early classes,
like, you know, food can change our, you know, our bodies and our molecular
structure and our functions. And I was like, that's really cool.
Like the things we put in our mouth can like have us, can just make us feel better.
(10:21):
And, and so that's kind of how I got into, to diet, becoming a dietitian.
And like I said, after I got done with The Bachelors, I was like,
I'm never doing it. So I was just like wishy-washy, flippy-floppy. Yeah, yeah.
And so bringing this kind of fascination with the culinary piece,
marrying it with what you were learning about how food could impact our bodies,
(10:45):
the representation, and this all just started to come together for you.
And you in your day-to-day work, you are doing some really unique things.
Things. So can you tell us a bit about the type of, you know,
on an individual or community basis, the type of things that you're engaging in professionally?
(11:06):
Are you doing a lot of counseling with people? Are you doing more advocacy work?
What does that look like for you?
So I was a clinical dietitian for the past like five years.
And, you know, when I, When I got my RD credential, I was like,
(11:26):
I'm never going to go into clinical.
And if I was, it was two years tops. And so I got my credential in 2018.
Happened two years later. We all know what happened two years later.
Oh, that's right. It's 2020, the pandemic.
That's right. And at the very beginning of 2020, I was like,
(11:47):
well, Danae, it's getting up on two years. you need to go back to community
because community nutrition is just so fun to me.
During my internship, I had a really great time. I just like talking with community
and doing cooking classes and doing like all this recipe development and curriculum
development and presentation development.
And so clinical really wasn't, you know, a place for me to do as much of that.
(12:10):
Yeah, yeah, I can do some, but it wasn't like, it wasn't the main focus.
It was a lot of It was just like answering referrals, as we all know,
and nothing wrong with that.
Like clinical dietitians, they are my heroes, but I am not one of them.
So 2020 came and I was like, okay, you need to start looking for community nutrition positions.
(12:31):
And there really aren't a lot on the reservation. I still wanted to work for my Navajo community.
And there really isn't any options in the tribal area because...
Really, the only way you can be a dietitian if on the reservation is you work
for the Indian Health Service. Okay.
(12:52):
And the Indian Health Service, they only have two positions, essentially.
It's either clinical dietitian, either outpatient or inpatient, or community.
And community, you know, me getting in the door with community, it was a lot harder.
And I needed to do something for fun. So while I was in the hospital or while
(13:14):
I was working as an outpatient dietitian,
I started up my company and it started out as a side hustle in 2021 because
I was just getting too antsy.
And so, you know, after seeing 10 patients a day, I was like,
oh, I get to go home and create this presentation.
I was like so excited. Okay. And this is Tumbleweed Nutrition, right?
(13:38):
Yeah, this is my company, Tumbleweed Nutrition. So, now I've, you know, it's 2024 now.
So, it's been three years in existence.
For about half of that, it was a side hustle.
So, I talked with my boss. I told him, like, hey, can I work 410?
So, on my day off, I can work on my company. And he was like, okay.
(14:00):
So I kind of had that that conversation
and I did stuff on the weekends and
I really built up a foundation for myself because I knew
eventually one day that was going to be my ticket out that was going to be my
way out so I just needed to hang on hang on for a few years and then I'll have
(14:20):
a good enough base have a good enough client base to kind of go out on my own and so I got to
a point where I was working like 80 hours a week, if you include my business stuff.
And I was like, this is not sustainable to me.
Like I was burning out. Oh yeah. And I got to the decision where I just had to leave.
(14:41):
It was either stay in clinical or, um.
Pursue my company. And so pursuing my company, like I said, I'm a community
nutrition at heart, and that's what this, my company was, just community nutrition.
So now, you know, my goal is to work with, really work, really work on increasing
(15:02):
access for food, to food in tribal communities is, and it's also about celebrating our cultural foods.
Because often my patients would be ashamed for eating their cultural foods.
And that's for various reasons. Some of it is because, you know,
medical professionals would be like, oh, you have to stay away from this food,
(15:23):
this cultural food, like corn or sheep or mutton or don't eat this.
And it was a lot of it was like based in fear mongering around our cultural foods.
And so as I'm, you know, as I created my company, I was like,
you know, I want to make sure that cultural foods are something that's to be celebrated.
And so I also work with local native owned farms so that I can,
(15:48):
you know, use their product and just be with them and support them in their work they're doing.
Because, you know, I came to a realization and I've kind of already known it all along is like,
you know, when we're talking about, you know, chronic condition management,
like diabetes or heart disease, if a community doesn't have access to food?
(16:11):
You know, how are they going to make these quote-unquote healthy food choices
if there's no access at all?
And so for me as a dietician, it's just not enough to say to –.
Say, go eat healthy foods or do presentations or healthy foods when there's no food access.
And on the reservation, there's about 13 grocery stores and the land base is
(16:34):
about the size of West Virginia.
So it's a food desert.
USDA has called Navajo Nation a food desert because there's no grocery stores.
And so that's kind of the work I do with my business is trying to partner with
local farmers and also connecting local farmers to,
(16:58):
to schools who are, who have a primary, uh,
native population, native student population as well.
And so now I do like presentations, cooking classes, curriculum development.
I partner with grant organizations or grants working on, on the tribal,
in tribal communities, just so, you know,
(17:19):
I can make sure that there's a dietician present
because there's you know there's definitely a huge movement
towards incorporating more of our
indigenous foods into our our
health and really this whole movement they call it the food sovereignty movement
it really hasn't been a huge thing until like the last 10 or 20 years prior
(17:44):
to that it was like you know just boring nutrition education like sandwiches and salads.
And now the last 10 or 20 years,
the USDA and other federal partners and nonprofit partners have been really
pushing towards funding for incorporating more cultural or indigenous foods
(18:06):
into nutrition education and Native communities.
And what was missing seeing was, was a dietician presence.
Sure. Whenever I would see a lot of these, yeah.
And, and whenever I'd see these programs out there.
Talking about cultural foods and indigenous foods, they were doing amazing work,
(18:26):
you know, doing community gardens in their home, doing like,
you know, more native friendly approaches or interventions.
One thing that was missing was dietitian, a dietitian.
Yep, yep. And so for me, it's important for me to, again, have that not only
Native representation,
but also have that dietetic background as well and make sure that,
(18:50):
you know, any nutrition interventions,
just making sure that they're also, you know, evidence-based and they're just,
you know, not too biased.
As we know nutrition is very personal and sometimes
people who are leading programs may
(19:11):
allow their biases to come into play and so definitely that's where you know
i feel like it's important to have that dietetic dietitian representation in
some of these programs too so yeah that's kind of just to sum it all up that's
what i've that's what i've been doing this last year and a half.
And I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but back in, did I?
(19:33):
December 2022, that's when I left my clinical job. Okay. Going around. Congratulations.
And it sounds like you've really created a beautiful kind of just mixed portfolio
of things to keep yourself busy and kind of building connections and being really,
really deeply present in the community.
(19:55):
Sounds It sounds like you just tried to really embed yourself and it's a beautiful
thing. What a great story.
Yeah. And, and my, I have a little slogan, if you don't know,
but my slogan is connecting indigenous nutrition and community.
And I think that's, what's missing from a lot of mainstream nutrition education
(20:18):
interventions in Native communities is, is there,
you know, we need to make more of that connection between community partners and our interventions.
Like, it's important to build those relationships with community,
our community, before we put in interventions.
And so it's, that's why I'm very adamant about, you know, going out to a farm
(20:42):
and pulling weeds for them.
That's why I'm very adamant about going to schools and just doing tours.
And so it's really about building relationships because I think that's,
you know, in tribal communities, that's what we need.
And that's why, you know, early on I introduced myself with the four clans is
because that's how we connect.
(21:04):
That's how we understand our background.
And so when I go out to my own community in Navajo and even with other non-Navajo
tribal communities, you know, I still try to introduce myself in my clans.
Just to make sure like, you know, people know this is where I'm coming from.
(21:24):
So. Yeah. And so some of the, the foods and food traditions that,
that you've really aimed to,
bring some recognition around or celebrate, tell us a little bit more about those.
What are some of the, the ways of eating that you feel like are really characteristic
(21:47):
of some of these more indigenous food ways, so to speak, in the community that
you're in? Yeah, definitely.
You know, growing up, my grandma taught us how to, you know, plant corn.
And so corn for natives is a very important food for, I would say,
(22:08):
I hate to make generalizations, but I'd say like all native tribes have a very heavy emphasis on corn.
Well, just depending on where the region is, but I'm from the Southwest region,
but there are many tribes who use corn in not just, you know,
the food that they eat, but also in ceremonies, like in the Nauvoo community,
(22:31):
corn is very heavily used in different ceremonies, corn pollen,
different parts of the corn is used.
And so that's, you know, something that's important to celebrate is because,
Because, you know, in Western medicine and in the healthcare system,
it's, you know, people would say corn is, you should limit corn and don't eat the corn.
(22:57):
You know, it's not good for you.
You know, all these different things about corn. But, you know,
when you say that to a Native person, it's not just, they don't hear it as like, okay,
you know, sometimes it can be heard as a little offensive when people say that.
(23:17):
Because with Native communities, plants and animals and food that we eat can
sometimes be considered as relatives or family members.
And so when you say that about corn, it's like you're trying to tell people
to limit time with your friend.
(23:38):
And so, you know, it's so that's, you know, one significant food that our communities have is corn.
And, you know, as as I've done many presentations over the past year and a half on.
I found out through my research was that 60% of the current global food supply
(24:01):
actually has indigenous American roots.
And that's just something that's not talked about. Like you think about all
these foods for other ethnicities or races, and a lot of those foods are traced
back to indigenous communities like potatoes.
Sometimes you think, oh, that's an Irish food. No, that's an indigenous food
(24:24):
that was, you know, traded centuries ago,
but it was indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica and South America who developed
that food. Same thing with corn.
You know, people think, oh, polenta is an Italian food. And I'm like,
no, that's a native food.
So there's so many foods out there, chocolate, peppers that have these indigenous roots.
(24:50):
Fruits but we just don't talk about it so it's like you know a lot of the food
is indigenous food it's just you know over the years over the centuries those
those roots have just been lost so now it's about kind of reclaiming the like
these foods reclaiming our relatives and saying like hey,
that's our long lost relative that we have to reclaim same thing with like chia
(25:13):
seeds i didn't No chia seeds were an indigenous food. I wouldn't have known that either, no.
They were, they are collected by, you know, many of the California tribes, including Chumash.
And, and yeah, that's.
You know, when you think chia, like
you think of, you know, lady making a smoothie in her very fancy house.
(25:36):
And you're not thinking of it as like, okay, tribal community is collecting
this from the flowers that are in the local forest.
Yeah. And I saw on your Instagram account, there was a recipe with blue corn.
Is there significance to the blue corn specifically? Yeah.
Yeah. Blue corn is like, blue corn is our poster child for Southwest tribes.
(26:02):
The Hopi originally developed blue corn, the blue, and through like trade among
the tribes pre-contact, you know, we've all developed our own strains.
You know, with Navajo, we have like Navajo robin's egg blue corn.
There's the original Hopi corn. There's like hundreds of blue corn strains that are out there.
(26:23):
And so blue corn is a native corn that is more nutrient dense.
It's higher in carbohydrates, higher in fiber, higher in protein than corn you
would get from the grocery store like sweet corn.
But we use it as a staple, like, you know, with East Asian people,
(26:47):
with rice, with the European people and wheat.
Native corn, including blue corn, is like our staple carbohydrate.
Carbohydrate so yeah many many of my recipes actually include blue corn and
i work with one or two native producers of blue corn and so whenever i work
(27:09):
with like non-native entities who want to incorporate more indigenous foods i say you know part of and.
Understanding this whole food system is also making sure that we are supporting Native producers.
And so I connect, you know, some Native producers to my clients and my clients
buy, you know, the product.
(27:31):
So when I'm doing cooking classes, you know, it's kind of like a whole system.
It's just, you know, it's a whole loop of support.
So, yeah, blue corn is definitely one of those foods that is very important to us.
And it's weaved in Navajo and many other Southwest tribes.
(27:52):
It's weaved into, you know, the spiritual beliefs as well. And it's connected
to creation stories of how we were created.
So for like Navajo, you know, I was reading in a book and definitely I'm not
a traditional, like, medicine man or medicine woman.
So they can correct me on this. but
(28:14):
but you know our our veins are blue
because of blue corn so that's kind of how it's weaved into a lot of a lot of
the stories about how we were created early on by the deities that speaks to
the significance within the cultural paradigm belief system and value system and.
(28:37):
Yeah. And all of that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's definitely the conversation
that we're missing when we do these nutrition interventions,
either on a, you know, like personal basis,
one-on-one basis, or even like in a public health situation.
It's like we need to recognize that there's this emotional side to food.
(29:00):
And it's okay to have that emotional
side to food because that's how our ancestors practice it as well.
It's not just about feeding us physically, it's also feeding us emotionally
and spiritually, and that's okay.
And for often, you know, conventional nutrition education doesn't include that,
(29:21):
you know, emotional or spiritual side and honoring that.
When they do, we talk about emotional eating.
It's more from like a negative view.
Sure, sure, sure. You know, like, okay, you emotionally eat when you've got
to cope with these negative emotions.
Versus honoring and respecting food traditions. It's a totally different conversation. Yeah.
(29:44):
So some of the food producers that you're working with locally,
are there foods that you're finding they're able to give back to the community
that really are not available in the grocery stores or maybe that you felt like, wow,
people are really not able to access these specific indigenous traditional foods any other way?
(30:09):
Yeah yeah and at the
heart native native food producers
including farmers they know
that we don't have they just
know we don't have access to food they don't have we don't have access
to cultural foods or indigenous foods so that's that's their primary purpose
(30:30):
is to access to these traditional foods and and and they just they they know
it's healthy for our community And so often many of the producers are very much community focused.
In fact, that's the reason why they go into farming or producing food is because
(30:51):
they're focused on community, taking care of their community.
So, as tribal people, you know, food is love.
Food is a way to gather for us.
And so, when I work with producers, you know, we like to make sure if we're
going to be doing cooking classes on the farm, we want to make sure that our producers.
(31:16):
Cooking classes are accessible to the community. We don't charge for cooking classes.
We find another way to fund it, and that's primarily through grants.
Or we do like excursions where we do camping on the farm.
And so we're trying to increase access to a lot of these practices that many
people are just forgetting.
And maybe not forgetting also is we're losing,
(31:39):
I should say, too because of colonization and
westernization and globalization it's in the boarding
schools and we're just losing a lot of indigenous knowledge so you know that's
that's what I you know when I work with producers you know we were very passionate
about making sure that we're increasing access to these practices and what kinds
(32:01):
of foods tend to be the focus for them is it certain types of produce?
Is it grain? Is it corn?
What are you seeing they're putting a lot of their energy and focus into? Corn for sure.
And again, it really depends on the community.
There's like six or seven general regions in the United States.
(32:24):
And I'm talking about United States tribal regions. And,
you know, our food is developed, our food staples is based on what was available
to us, you know, back in the day, pre-contact.
And so it just really depends on the region. So for instance,
(32:45):
the Southwest region, like we're, we're very much focused on corn because our
environment is a desert environment.
It wasn't easy to go out and hunt and gather. So we, we had to turn to agriculture
to sustain our communities.
Communities whereas you know an area that has
more biodiversity there probably wasn't as
(33:05):
much of a need to go towards agriculture so somewhere
like the you know the oregon region like the northwest region or the northeast
region or the southeast region those are like you know they're classified as
jungles right and so there's a lot more biodiversity so maybe they didn't have
as this much dependency on agriculture.
(33:27):
Same way with the Great Lakes region. I just went to Minnesota last month because
the Fond du Lac community had invited me out there to help them out with an event.
And their region, yeah, they have corn, but their main staple would be wild rice.
And there's a lot of practices around wild rice and just like how corn was part
(33:53):
of our creation stories for Navajo, for the Ojibwe people or Anishinaabe people,
wild rice is that way for them.
Wild rice is very much part of their creation stories. And so I'm.
Yeah. You know, it just depends on the region. And so that's definitely something,
you know, in school when, you know, when I was going to dietetic school or to get my bachelor's,
(34:21):
like there really wasn't any discussion about that.
When it came to like the culture class for dietetics, it was like, oh,
Navajos are Native Americans that we're all either they're suffering from diabetes
and we're all fat or we all eat buffaloes and berries.
Those are the two choices that we had. And there really wasn't like this whole
(34:45):
conversation about, you know, the importance of cultural foods and this integration,
all of these different other things in, in native foods.
It was just like, you know, two, two choices.
And, and so, yeah, that was kind of, you know, That was, you know,
during my culture class, it was that cultural foods class.
(35:09):
I don't remember what they call it, but it definitely made me feel like there
needed to be more representation because,
you know, there's just a lot more complexity to how we deliver nutrition,
care to, you know, marginalized communities.
(35:30):
And so the same could be said for other marginalized communities with Black
community or Latinx community.
There's a lot more complexity that we need to bring to the table. Yeah. Yeah.
And it looks like your Instagram is super active. You're on there quite a bit.
So because this is, I mean, like the history and the nuance around this,
(35:53):
we could just talk for hours probably, right?
So I'm going to say, we're going to link up all your socials and things so people
can go and check it out and continue to learn.
But to wrap up this piece, is there just one recipe or one dish that you'd like
to share that's a favorite for you?
(36:14):
Hmm. I don't know.
You're asking me which child is my favorite.
And the one i can tell you the one
that's most requested because yeah i like to
blend like native foods into like foods
(36:36):
you'd be familiar with so one of my most popular
ones is the a banana walnut
blue corn pancake that's like by far the most popular one and that when i talk
about blue corn i talk about maple syrup being an indigenous food and different
ways to to source it from native producers to make sure we're supporting food
(36:59):
access for our native communities.
So that's my most popular one. Mm-hmm.
And, you know, maybe it's falling out of favor for me because I've had so many
classes that were pancakes.
I'm like, I'm done with baking.
Okay, but they just keep asking for more. Yeah, it's a good one.
(37:20):
They just keep asking for the pancakes.
But again, like, you know, if our elders would see that, they'd be like, what is this?
And so, you know, sometimes I like the traditional OG foods like kneel down
bread where you're getting like the early crop of white corn and you're grinding
it down into a paste and you're putting it into corn husks and you're roasting
(37:44):
it underground. the ground.
You know, my other favorite is Navajo cake in which that one is only made during
a coming of age ceremony.
So the only time I can eat that is when a girl is going through her coming of
age ceremony or her kenalda.
So that one I really relish because it's a very sacred food.
(38:06):
It's a very sacred food. And so it just, it just makes you feel really good.
Like you know the other food you know the what did
i say did i already say the traditional food the traditional og
recipe of blue corn mush um which
is not yet it's like polenta but it's a looser polenta and it's made with blue
corn great examples yeah so just uh again you know you're asking me about my
(38:34):
favorite child and it's hard to choose oh my goodness it's just it's just it's taste.
It's just a taste, right, of all that's there to explore.
All right, Denae. Well, I know, you know, you've got other obligations.
I want to respect your time.
I'd ask if we could just close with any recommendations that you have for professionals
(38:56):
who want to learn more about some of these food traditions you've been talking about.
Definitely. I would encourage dietitians to, you know, learn more about how
many tribal communities are in your state.
And to see if you can find any dietitians from those different tribal communities.
We are definitely unicorns. There's only about 500 of us native dietitians, but we're out there.
(39:21):
And, you know, to learn more, I definitely lean into a book I like to recommend is,
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer that really gives you an in-depth
look at how native people relate to food and plants.
And, yeah, I can go on about what resources to dig into because I think it's
(39:43):
really important to make sure that, you know, we're talking about our side,
our Native side of the story when it comes to food and nutrition.
So, yeah. All right. And definitely follow me on Instagram because,
you know, you'll see my travels as I go to different communities. Good, good.
And you speak, you present, so people can stay connected with you that way as well.
(40:04):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I have my website too, in which you can,
you know, download some, some products as well to kind of learn more about native communities.
And also recently I started offering a hopefully monthly CPE series where I
host, where I do like a webinar, a one hour webinar.
(40:25):
And I talk about different native nutrition issues.
Like February I did like native foods that support heart health because it was
heart health month. Oh, that's fabulous.
March, I did like, you know, what can we do as dietitians to support the food sovereignty movement.
And so I kind of just choose, you know, different, different things that intrigue me.
(40:46):
And, and I offer CPE for that as well.
Well fabulous no shortage of
resources from tumbleweed nutrition so thank you
thank you for sharing that you're doing really really great work congratulations
on the transition your professional transition to doing this full-time and thank
you so much for taking the time to share with us a little bit about about your
(41:10):
path yeah thank you for having me you're so welcome today take good care.
Music.
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