Fry bread. Tons of fry bread. Fry bread with greasy chili, topped with shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and salsa. Fry bread with homemade blueberry jam. Fry bread dipped in maple syrup, just for fun. Fry bread when there is no real bread in the house. Or when you are feeling lonely for home, make some fry bread.

What is with all the fry bread? Or as they say out west – Bannock? Who wants bannock? Health conscience NDNs will opt for bannock because it is not deep fried in canola oil which, by the way, is genetically modi? ed. Bannock is supposed to be more healthy because it’s not deep fried. Both are the same ingredients but just prepared differently. Some just say – scone. And it’s all the same.

The pow wow trail is notorious for bad food choices. Here is a look at the pow wow menu: Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon or sausages, fried potatoes,or sausages, fried potatoes, fry bread and coffee or tea. Lunch: 1 NDN taco with french fries and a soda pop. Snack: fry bread with butter and a soda pop. Supper: 1 buffalo burger stuffed between a sliced piece of fry bread with french fries and a soda pop. Dessert: fry bread with blueberry jam or peanut butter and raspberry jam and a coffee or tea. Snack: a bag of potatoe chips and a blue sno-cone. Or another piece of fry bread.

That’s just one day. If you are at a pow wow for a whole weekend, you better be packing some rolaids, tums or some fresh mint. Sadly, this is the typical food variety that you could expect at any pow wow. Food stands lined up side by side smelling of grease. NDNs bellies poking each other in the back while in the line up. Kids running high on sugar from Sno-Cones, surprise bags and soda pop.

It’s the fry bread trail. It’s the grease trail. Health should be taken seriously in our First Nations communities seeing how it’s booming with diabetes and obesity but no, health takes the back seat on the Pow Wow Trail. Thank goodness there were some sockeye salmon barbequing on racks around the ? re at the Squamish pow wow. Salmon is a more appropriate food choice that re? ects a natural West Coast diet. A traditional diet is a valuable insight to better health.

Imagine a world ? lled with wild rice, venison, moose, goose, partridge, roots, berries, pickeral, sockeye, whale, corn, beans and squash. Imagine having access to these foods on a regular basis. Instead of pushing a shopping cart with one wiggly wheel down aisles and aisles of prepackaged, bleached, canned, packed with preservatives, genetically modi? ed, nuke and bake, deep fry, shake and bake, just add (boiled or cold) water and serve, msg, the second ingredient being sugar/glucose.

These are the choices we have to make when checking off items on a grocery list for a post colonial feast.