“Our Foods Remember Us”: Indigenous Women’s Ancestral Diets, Nutritional Knowledge, and Cardiometabolic Health
Vishal Patil, PhD, Mansi Patil, PhD, Shilpa Varma, PhD, Datta Patel, PhD
Volume 26, Number 1 (2026) 26 (1): 170-195
Keywords Indigenous women, ancestral diets, cardiometabolic health, traditional food systems, food sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge, non-communicable diseases, intersectionality, metabolic health
Abstract
Cardiometabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, disproportionately affect Indigenous communities worldwide, with Indigenous women bearing distinct health and caregiving burdens. This review reframes Indigenous women’s ancestral diets as a form of traditional medicine and a coherent, place-based health system
supporting cardiometabolic regulation. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature from India, North America, Oceania, and Latin America, the paper synthesizes evidence on traditional food systems, women’s knowledge practices, and metabolic health outcomes through Indigenous epistemologies and intersectional analysis. The findings demonstrate that ancestral diets—rooted in ecological
stewardship, cultural continuity, and women’s leadership—support glucose balance, cardiovascular health, and the regulation of inflammation. Situating Indigenous nutritional knowledge in dialogue with public health and clinical nutrition, the paper argues for ethically grounded, women-led food sovereignty approaches as integral to equitable and sustainable cardiometabolic disease prevention and care.
Vishal Patil, PhD
Mansi Patil, PhD
Shilpa Varma, PhD
Datta Patel, PhD
Published June 5, 2026
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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