Total: Welcome to FastTrack, a Kai ā nuku approach to nutrition
We have created a lifestyle programme, based around kai (food), to support wellness at every age and stage of life and to look after the taiao (environment). We call this a kai ā nuku approach to nutrition, which means acknowledging the connection between whenua (land) and the food the whenua produces for us to eat.
FastTrack is not a diet. It is a way of living that supports flourishing.
It includes the fundamentals of eating foods that promote good health and is linked to the health and wellbeing services provided by our whānau at The Centre for Health.
Eating food that comes mostly from plants is good for our bodies and also helps to support Papatūānuku (the earth).
We have used evidence from science, principles from BlueZone communities and the mātauranga (knowledge) that is unique to our place in the world here in Aotearoa, to create FastTrack.
Where the evidence comes from & who FastTrack is for
Our Philosophy | Whakapapa
The creation of FastTrack was initially to provide a way to reverse the physiological impacts of leading a less than ideal lifestyle. We were particularly keen to find something that would help to reduce the clogging of the arteries that makes heart attacks happen. Exercise is well known to do this but lots of people find exercise difficult to do and to maintain and we needed another option that was effective. We agreed to research and develop a nutrition approach.
At The Centre for Health, where FastTrack Kai ā Nuku was born, there is a holistic philosophy of health care. So we also took a holistic approach to thinking about a nutrition programme that might be helpful.
We canvassed the scientific literature, got a sense of the Māori knowledge available and also looked at Bluezone communities where people live the longest and are arguably the most well in the world. From our research FastTrack Kai ā Nuku was created. It is an Aotearoa specific plant based approach that is not a diet but a holistic lifestyle approach. FastTrack Kai ā Nuku remains connected to The Centre for Health and is offered as a service through the Centre but has taken an identity of its own because it has worked so successfully in our trials with The Centre for Health whānau.
