This First Nations chef went into a diabetic coma at 21. Now he teaches healthy traditional cooking
Social Sharing
Kirk Ermine was 21 years old when he fell into his first diabetic coma. At the time, he didn't know what was going on.
The first doctor he saw did blood work, but didn't test for diabetes. The second doctor assumed some sores on Ermine's mouth were connected to an STI outbreak in Prince Albert, Sask., where he was living at the time.
In reality, the symptoms were from Type 1 diabetes.
Some signs of diabetes include extreme exhaustion, sores that don't heal quickly, frequent urination and infections, extreme thirst and blurry vision.
WATCH | Diabetic chef focuses on healthy cooking using traditional ingredients:
Diabetic chef focuses on healthy cooking using traditional Indigenous ingredients
7 hours ago
Duration 2:46
Ermine was finally diagnosed after he experienced exhaustion so extreme he couldn't get out of bed and had to be rushed to hospital. His blood sugars were nearly 10 times higher than they should have been.
"It took them about nine days to bring my sugars down to normal," he said. "In that time I ended up in a coma."
Doctors told him he had juvenile Type 1 diabetes. He has been insulin-dependent ever since.
Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas does not produce any insulin, a hormone that helps our bodies control the sugar in our blood.
About 10 per cent of people living with diabetes have Type 1. The other 90 per cent have Type 2 diabetes, which is more common in older adults. It's also becoming more common due to obesity, but it can be prevented or postponed with lifestyle changes, such as limiting fat and sugar intake, exercising more and not smoking.
Both types of diabetes are also more prevalent among Indigenous populations. According to Diabetes Canada, rates of Type 1 and 2 diabetes are 17.2 per cent in First Nations people living on reserve, and 12.7 per cent for those living off reserve, compared to about five per cent of the general population. Nearly 10 per cent of Métis people are diabetic.
Ermine was born and raised in Sturgeon Lake First Nation. He admits his diet was not the best.
"Eating convenience foods — the Kraft dinners, the ramen noodles, a lot of breads — a lot of hollow carbs that really turn into sugars when they're in your body," Ermine said.
After his diagnosis, he became more interested in how food can affect us. He started to notice that people used food to either harm or heal their bodies, depending on their emotional state.
"So when we're harming ourselves, we tend to go for the fast foods, the comfort foods, something that's going to get into us quickly," Ermine said. "But we don't realize the high cholesterol, the high salt, the high sugars that we're putting in our bodies. And that's like sugar bombing our pancreas."
Ermine was working as a firefighter in the bush when he started paying closer attention to his blood sugar levels. He could tell when he needed to eat, so he started cooking for himself and the crew.
"I got tired of the physical labour. So I decided one day that I might as well go and do something that I can have a passion about."
He completed the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Professional cooking program in 2007, graduating with honours.
Since then, he's worked for SIGA, Prairieland Park, Dakota Dunes Casino Restaurant and the University of Saskatchewan.
After adopting his children, he decided it was time for a change of pace. He stayed home to care for the kids, and started a catering and consulting business, teaching others how to cook health-conscious meals using traditional ingredients instead of processed food.
"I encourage people to eat less of it, or be creative with it," Ermine said, adding that people can also incorporate more nutritional density to their food by adding vegetables, eggs and other simple proteins.
Even the pickiest of eaters can be swayed, Ermine said. He said it's all about working with flavour profiles that a person likes, and testing different types of vegetables using different cooking methods. He suggests having fun with it, with a taste test.
"Kind of like a black box challenge," he said. "They start tasting stuff and they'll realize, oh, this is actually good."
One staple ingredient Ermine loves to use is sweet potato, because of its high fibre content and low glycemic index. He also said game meats like moose or venison can be swapped into recipes if people don't have access to beef.
Pemmican is another food that he likes to experiment with. The staple of many First Nations diets is made of dried meat, dried berries and animal fat. He said it can be modified to suit anyone's taste.
"You can add more nutrition by adding different ingredients, different flavours, and different berries, [you] can add traditional nuts, like hazelnuts and pecans," he said.
Ermine does pemmican teachings with the Saskatoon Public School Board, and presents at cultural camps with the University of Saskatchewan and First Nations University of Canada.
He's also held workshops on his home reserve, showing kids and families how they can make healthier meals in their own kitchens.
"Some of the recipes that we were doing, I was surprised to see how many kids never tried certain vegetables," Ermine said. "But once they tried it in different cooking techniques and different flavour profiles, they actually enjoyed vegetables."
Ermine said he may branch out in the future and start creating videos and recipes he and his kids can share online. At some point, he may even write a cookbook.
For now, he said he will keep perfecting his recipes and inspiring others to eat healthier.
"It makes me feel really good inside knowing that through my illness, my disease, that I can create a positive change in the world, taking a negative and creating a positive out of it."
Ground bison with sweet potatoes and wild mushrooms, over a bed of basmati and wild rice
Chef Kirk Ermine shared one of his recipes with CBC.
It's a hearty and nutritious meal using traditional ingredients that anyone can make in under 20 minutes.
Ingredients:
1 sweet potato peeled and cut into half-inch cubes.
900 grams ground bison meat.
500 grams of dry, wild mushrooms, re-hydrated.
1 tablespoon minced garlic.
Three pinches of allspice.
Salt and pepper to taste.
One cup of basmati rice.
2 cups of wild rice, cooked and cooled.
1 tablespoon butter.
Instructions:
In a medium pot, add basmati rice, butter, and two cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Simmer until water is absorbed.
In a large frying pan, heat two tablespoons canola oil, add sweet potato cubes and sauté for 10 minutes.
Add mushrooms and sauté for another two minutes.
Add the ground bison, allspice, salt, pepper and garlic.
As the ground bison cooks, break it up into smaller pieces until it's fully cooked and mixed.
In a separate bowl, add hot basmati rice to the cooked wild rice and combine evenly.
Put a bed of rice onto a plate, and top with the sauteed bison, sweet potato and mushroom mixture and enjoy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
43 minutes ago
- CTV News
Hard disease: Scleroderma awareness
Hard disease: Scleroderma awareness A Nova Scotia woman knows first-hand how tough it is to live with scleroderma.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Ontario summer camps sharing measles protocols as kids get set to head off
In this file photo, counsellors and campers walk to closing campfire, Thursday, June 20, 2024, at YMCA Camp Kern in Oregonia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel) As many kids prepare to head off to summer activities, summer camps are sharing their plans to keep kids safe amid a measles outbreak in the province. Ontario has been grappling with an outbreak of the highly contagious illness since October. According to the latest data from Public Health Ontario, there have been more than 2,100 cases so far. Measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause serious illness and even death in some children. Most of those who have contracted the illness in the latest outbreak have been unvaccinated, public health officials have said. Most of the cases have been in Southwestern Ontario. Waterloo Region recently told CTV news that protocols for its summer camps this season include isolating unvaccinated campers or staff for 21 days if there is an exposure, or until they can prove they've had two doses of a vaccine. Howie Grossinger co-owns two Ontario summer camps -- Camp Robin Hood in Markham and Camp Walden in Palmer Rapids. Speaking with CP24 Friday, Grossinger said that his camps have been heeding public health guidance and working to educate campers and staff. 'We've really educated our entire camp community about the expectations of being fully vaccinated, (and) the implications for campers and staff, should they not be fully vaccinated,' Grossinger said. He said the camp has been collecting vaccination records from those who will be attending camp this summer so that they are able to quickly work with public health officials to minimize spread in case there is an exposure. While campers are not required to be vaccinated in order to attend camp, they would have to go home if there were an exposure, as per public health guidance. 'The response has been great. Parents have been sharing our vigilance on this,' Grossinger said. 'Safety and risk management are of the utmost importance, and we also are educating or re-educating families, given our COVID experience, to the signs of illness; flu-like, symptoms, rashes, etc.' He said health staff at camp are also receiving training about how to be vigilant for signs of the measles, and staff will be communicating with campers regularly to quickly detect if anyone is feeling unwell. 'At the end of the day, we want the experience of camp – the fun, the education and really the lifelong skills that happen at camp – to be the priority, while always maintaining vigilance on all the health and safety stuff that I know parents and us as operators are so concerned with.'
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Alberta surpasses 1,000 measles cases, second province to do so
Vials of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are seen in this file photo. Alberta is the second province in Canada to count 1,000 measles cases this year, having crossed the threshold on Friday. With 24 new cases in as many hours, Alberta now has confirmed 1,020 cases of measles. As of Friday, 25 were considered active, or communicable, cases. No deaths have been reported. Ontario's total number of cases crossed 1,000 in late April and currently sits at nearly 2,180. Together, Alberta and Ontario account for more than 90 per cent of measles cases in the country. CTV News Edmonton has reached out to the Primary and Preventative Health Services' ministry for comment. In an interview last week, Dr. Chris Siroka, lead medical officer of health for the Edmonton zone, applauded the cooperation by all levels of Alberta's government and health system to promote immunization, educate the public about symptoms, and provide access to testing. 'Those steps are the good steps to take around prevention and around rapid contact identification,' Siroka told CTV News Edmonton. 'Rapid case identification and contact tracing is what will help stop transmission or help reduce transmission events… and that same work is happening in Edmonton as it is happening in Calgary and every other corner of the province.' However, one of the province's former chief medical officers of health, Dr. James Talbot, said the milestone suggests a grim outlook for the summer and fall, during which measles cases will likely rise not only in Alberta but also neighbouring provinces and territories due to summer travel. Then, Talbot expects Canada will lose its measles elimination status in October, which it achieved in 1998. Alberta reaching 1,000 measles cases also means that Alberta will begin to see more serious outcomes, like death, brain damage and miscarriages. Talbot said, 'If the measures were working, we'd see the numbers going down and we wouldn't see spread to new areas. And both of those are happening.' He expects cities and areas such as Edmonton that have so far avoided high measles cases will not fare as well in the summer. The Edmonton zone on Friday saw its first new measles cases since early May, one day after Alberta Health Services issued a warning about two measles exposures in the capital city. According to the government, between one and three people out of every 1,000 diagnosed with measles die. One in 1,000 diagnosed with measles will get encephalitis. Measles is considered preventable with immunization. Two doses of a vaccine makes a person nearly fully protected. Ninety-five per cent of a population needs to be immunized for herd immunity.
