Dear Editor,   

With National Nutrition Month (March) now behind us, we find ourselves pausing to reflect. Governor Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula issued a proclamation designating the month of March to focus on nutrition, a gesture that signals hope for American Samoa. But as we now look back, we wonder: Are we doing enough? Did we do enough?

At SPW Fitness, where we’ll mark our 10th anniversary this July, we’ve spent a decade wrestling with that question, striving to help our community push back against an obesity epidemic that feels both personal and overwhelming.

The numbers are alarming: 93% of our adults are overweight or obese, 47% live with diabetes, and 44.6% of our school children are already caught in this cycle. Heart disease claims 36% of our deaths, diabetes 39% — together, they cast a shadow OVER THREE-QUARTERS OF OUR MORTALITY.

This is a national issue, yes, with obesity plaguing communities across the U.S., but here it cuts deeper, threatening our youth and future in ways that demand we look inward. Have we, as a community, truly confronted this?

 Nutrition, we’ve learned, is 80% of the battle to get healthy — exercise, the other 20%. Yet our diets have drifted far from the roots that once nourished our people.

Recently, we read that Governor Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia, who was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced a series of statewide initiatives to make West Virginia healthy. These initiatives model President Trump’s administration and Secretary Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Are we watching what is happening across the mainland as it relates to the MAHA movement?

 Over the years, we’ve witnessed many small victories through the work and programs we implement — families rethinking meals, kids finding joy in movement and learning about nutrition. Our Summer FIT Camps for example have been a big hit!

But as National Nutrition Month fades, we’re left wondering if our efforts, and those of our leaders & community, match the scale of what we face.

Did we use this month to spark real change? Could we lean on our government, businesses, churches, and cultural leaders to do more — to rethink policies, practices, and behaviors? 

We don’t have all the answers, but we hope to keep asking the questions. Our children deserve a future where health isn’t a fight, but a gift we’ve reclaimed together.

 Sincerely,

Paula & Michael McDonald

Owners, SPW Fitness — American Samoa

(Editor’s Note: The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiatives are laid out in one of President Trump’s executive orders establishing the President’s MAHA Commission that is to address the national focus, in public and private sectors, “toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic diseases… We must ensure our healthcare system promotes health rather than just managing disease.”

The Commission is chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services with an Executive Director, who is the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy.

The MAHA movement is still in developmental stage, which its website says is to embody their (Trump Administration’s) vision for a healthier, stronger America.

The website for MAHA asks for donations, which would go to the MAHA PAC that it states is “leading the charge to transform America’s approach to public heath, environmental sustainability, and government accountability.”

Unfortunately, the website seems to point to the movement being more ‘political’ than a defined set of life-style choice goals for healthy living in our communities.

For example, it lists as its Historic Achievements: “We shattered records in the 2024 election cycle, delivering game-changing outcomes and amplifying voter voices nationwide with a fraction of the resources of many super PACs.‍”

Samoa News notes that we can only wait and see if the MAHA initiatives will be based on science and evidence-based policies or politics, especially as the Trump Administration continues to dismantle the federal regulatory food and health infrastructures, i.e. scientists are currently being fired from the US Federal Drug Administration.

In the meantime, ‘Malo Lava’ to Paula & Michael McDonald, owners of SPW Fitness- American Samoa. Their work has helped many in the community make healthier life-style choices, not only by direct participation event, but also by example.)