Dr. Charlotte Coté is the author of "A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast." She sat down with Libby Denkmann to discuss "decolonizing" native diets.
For native communities, traditional foods serve many purposes: physical medicine, cultural connection, social linkage and spiritual affirmation.
Processed foods rich in sugar, sodium and unhealthy fats have had well-documented negative effects on people's health all over the world.
But Dr. Charlotte Coté says they have also damaged the spiritual and social well being of indigenous communities.