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.
Diabetic chef focuses on healthy cooking using traditional Indigenous ingredients
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.”
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:
Instructions:
