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Hyeisha Walker
Allison Schuver
Eng102-023
06 April 2012
Soul Food: The Link Between African Americans and Obesity
Approximately 60 percent of all African Americans are
overweight.Andapproximately 13 percent of all African Americans have diabetes
(Bailey, 6).That is a relatively large portion of people. A major contributor to
obesity as a whole is diet. In the African American community soul food in a
universal concept. Soul food consists of greasy high fat dishes and could very well
be a major contributor to the drastic number of obese African Americans. A large
portion of the African American community has been affected by the obesity
epidemic, because of the type of high fat, high cholesterol, and low in nutrition
food they have been consuming as a culture for centuries. Monique Angela Hicks
better known as Mo’Nique is a plus size comedian and an Academy Award
winning actress. Mo’Nique is well known to the African American population
from her roles on the BET series The Parkers and her leading role in the movie
Phat Girls. Mo’Nique declared big to be beautiful and skinny women to be evil in
her book, “Skinny Women are Evil.” She boasts about the foods she loves the
most; particularly her love for soul food. Mo’Nique’s proclamation indicates the
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African American culture will remain obese and continuously have health
problems if they continue with this mind set.
“African American heritage cooking exemplifies the historical trajectory of
blacks in America” (Mitchell, 1). Over the years the African American race as a
whole is known for their strength and ability to adapt in different environments.
From the time Africans arrived here in America through slavery they began to
adapt to their new environment by learning how to obtain food. Their diets
primarily consisted of cornmeal, buttermilk porridge, and occasionally meats and
greens. As the African Americans became more familiar with their new
surrounding and began to exchange traditions and ideas with slaves from other
regions; they began gardening as a major source of their food. Although what was
grown in these gardens was region specific a typical garden in the south consisted
of: black eyed peas, sesame seeds, okra, and collard greens (Mitchell,11). After
the Civil War when a lot of African Americans moved up north, food changed
again. Up north it became a lot easier for African Americans to obtain food and
better quality food at that. Fried chicken became a major staple in the African
American diet and they capitalized off of it. They began selling it to passengers on
trains. Another very important food component was the sweet potatoe, it was
found in the diets of people in all different regions (Dirks,1). These two foods
alone are the foundation of what is considered soul food.
There are hundreds of Soul food dishes. As well as hundreds of different
variations of those dishes. An example of typical Soul food meal was depicted
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very well in the movie Soul Food. In this film the family sat down for family
dinner every Sunday and their meal consisted of fried chicken, macaroni and
cheese, collard greens, short ribs, black eyed peas, rice, candied yams, cornbread,
apple pie, sweet potatoe pie and egg custard. This is a lot of food, so not only is
there a portion size issue, just about everything is high fat, high cholesterol, and
greasy. If this kind of meal was consumed every day, or even once a week there
would be serious consequences as far as their health is concerned. In the film Soul
Food the mother of the family was the one who cooked the meal every Sunday and
made sure everyone got together, she also had really bad diabetes. Her doctors
asked her to change her diet and take her medication and she did not follow their
orders. As a result she had a massive stroke and ultimately lost her life. Although
this is a fictional story, it is a very real situation that happens all the time in the
African American community.
The potential health risks associated with obesity are as follows:
Hypertension, Gallbladder disease, Osteoarthritis, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease,
Diabetes, Stroke, and Sleep Apnea (Hopkins, 11). African Americans are almost
twice as likely to be obese then White Americans; this means African Americans
need to be even more careful with what they eat and how they exercise. “And, of
course, their national branding comes with a host of deadly side effects: heart
disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, certain kinds of cancer”(Egan). Dr. Daryl Ellis
said, “Although our ancestors consumed
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the same kinds of food that we consume now, their level of activity was much
greater then it is today. So the consumption of these high fat meals and our
sedimentary lifestyles are major contributors to the obesity epidemic among the
African American community.” Dr. Ellis’ practice is in Phoenix City, Alabama,
predominantly low income area and he says majority of his patients are
overweight and suffer from weight related diseases. He also says that a lot of these
cases could be reversed if the patient cut back on the amount of Soul food
consumed and did more physical activity.“People living in poor societies today
swim in a sea of redundant calories. Food is everywhere, and it is relatively
inexpensive, accounting for about 10 percent of Americans’ disposable income on
average, Dr. Nestle said in an interview” (Brody).
It is important to educate the African American community about the
potentially negative effects of consuming large amounts of Soul Food. With this
being said we must look deeper and consider the underlying issues behind this
problem. Soul food really has a deeper significance to the African American
community then just food. Soul food has been said to have, connected African
Americans across a spectrum of diversity (Mitchell,19). In a lot of ways Soul food
is one of the last connections between the younger generations of African
Americans and their ancestors. “In its culinary incarnation, "soul food" was
associated with a shared history of oppression and inculcated, by some, with
cultural pride” (Henderson 81). Amiri Baraka, a nationalist poet, described Soul
food like this, “Soul food was another cultural product, possibly the most
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symbolic, with a strong historical lineage. People knew it had southern roots and
that workers, if not enslaved blacks, had eaten something like it. That sense of
history was an affirmation of community as its members prepared for changes to
come.” This quote really says a lot about the deeper meaning behind Soul food.
Another example of the deeper meaning behind Soul food is the importance of
fried chicken. African Americans began carrying friend chicken lunch boxes to
avoid the humiliation of Jim Crow segregation while traveling (Mitchell, 18).
Another big factor in why African Americans consume so much Soul food is
because of financial status. Healthy food can be extremely pricey and difficult for
the less fortunate to get access to, and this is a problem for all less fortunate
Americans. Soul food is easy to access, financially reasonable, and can feed large
groups of people there for it is the best option in these cases. Another underlying
issue is the acceptance of larger body sizes in the African American Culture.
African American women are expected to have larger frames, their
expected to have big butts, wide hips, and plenty of curves. It’s almost considered
strange for an African American women to be slim. The African American
community is receiving mixed messages about what body type is acceptable. On
one side they have medical professionals telling them its unhealthy to be
overweight and on the other side they have celebrities such as Mo’Nique who
ispromoting African American women being overweight and telling them it’s
acceptable. There is nothing wrong with being confident with your body type;
however people should be aware of the potential health risks.
