Food For Thought: Are you still a slave to your diet?

The 2000 U.S. Census revealed that there were almost 35 million African Americans, or about 13 percent of the total U.S. population. This small percentage of the populace has had a significant influence on American cuisine, not only because African-American food is diverse and flavorful, but also because of its historical beginnings. Despite their cultural, political, economic, and racial struggles, African Americans have retained a strong sense of their culture, which is, in part, reflected in their food.

Origins of the African-American Diet: The Aftereffects of Slavery

The roots of the diversity of African-American cuisine may be traced back to 1619, when the first African slaves were sold in the New World.

In a quest to build new cities in America, Europeans actively transported Africans and West Indians (people from the West Indies) to the new land. The West Indies (in the Caribbean Sea) was part of the slave route to America. Because the West Indians' skin color was similar to that of Africans, they were not treated any differently. As a result, some West Indian food traditions are similar to those of African Americans (Christina) ...

The Origin of Soul Food

Author(s): M. Cristina, F. Garces, Lisa A. Sutherland

Source: faqs.org

Though southern food is typically known as "soul food," many African Americans contend that soul food consists of African-American recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation, just like other African-American rituals . The legacy of African and West Indian culture is imbued in many of the recipes and food traditions that remain popular today. The staple foods of African Americans, such as rice, have remained largely unchanged since the first Africans and West Indians set foot in the New World, and the southern United States, where the slave population was most dense, has developed a cooking culture that remains true to the African-American tradition. This cooking is aptly named southern cooking, the food, or soul food. Over the years, many have interpreted the term soul food based on current social issues facing the African-American population, such as the civil rights movement. Many civil rights advocates believe that using this word perpetuates a negative connection between African Americans and slavery. However, as Doris Witt notes in her book Black Hunger (1999), the "soul" of the food refers loosely to the food's origins in Africa.

In his 1962 essay "Soul Food," Amiri Baraka makes a clear distinction between southern cooking and soul food. To Baraka, soul food includes chitterlings (pronounced chitlins), pork chops, fried porgies, potlikker, turnips, watermelon, black-eyed peas, grits, hoppin' John, hushpuppies, okra, and pancakes. Today, many of these foods are limited among African Americans to holidays and special occasions. Southern food, on the other hand, includes only fried chicken, sweet potato pie, collard greens, and barbecue, according to Baraka. The idea of what soul food is seems to differ greatly among African Americans (Christina).

Effects of Socioeconomic Status:

Poverty and Health

Many of the foods commonly eaten by African Americans, such as greens, yellow vegetables, legumes , beans, and rice, are rich in nutrients . Because of cooking methods and the consumption of meats and baked goods, however, the diet is also typically high in fat and low in fiber, calcium , and potassium.

Diet-Related Disease by Race	Obesity (%)	Diabetes (%)	Hypertension (%)
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics (2002).
African Americans
Male	21.1	7.6	36.7
Female	37.4	11.2	36.6
Total	33.4	10.8	36.6
Whites
Male	20.0	4.7	24.6
Female	22.4	5.4	20.5
Total	21.3	7.8	22.1
Hispanics
Male	23.1	8.1	NA
Female	33.0	11.4	NA
Total	26.2	9.0	NA

In 1989, 9.3 million of the black population (30.1%) had incomes below the poverty level. Individuals who are economically disadvantaged may have no choice but to eat what is available at the lowest cost. In comparison to other races, African Americans experience high rates of obesity , hypertension, type II diabetes , and heart disease , which are all associated with an unhealthful diet.

Obesity and hypertension are major causes of heart disease, diabetes , kidney disease, and certain cancers. African Americans experience disproportionately high rates of obesity and hypertension, compared to whites.

High blood pressure and obesity have known links to poor diet and a lack of physical activity. In the United States, the prevalence of high blood pressure in African Americans is among the highest in the world. The alarming rates of increase of obesity and high blood pressure, along with the deaths from diabetes-related complications, heart disease, and kidney failure, have spurred government agencies to take a harder look at these problems. As a result, many U.S. agencies have created national initiatives to improve the diet quality and the overall health of African Americans.

Looking Forward to a Healthier Tomorrow

African-American food and its dietary evolvement since the beginning of American slavery provide a complicated, yet extremely descriptive, picture of the effects of politics, society, and the economy on culture. The deep-rooted dietary habits and economic issues that continue to affect African Americans present great challenges regarding changing behaviors and lowering disease risk. In January 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Healthy People 2010, a comprehensive, nationwide health promotion and disease prevention agenda. The overarching goal of this program is to increase quality and years of healthy life and eliminate health disparities between whites and minority populations, specifically African Americans. As national health initiatives and programs continue to improve and target African Americans and other populations in need, preventable diseases will be lowered, creating a healthier U.S. society (M. Cristina). .

Are you still a SLAVE?
Then why do you keep eating like one?

According to international culinary expert Sally Bernstein,

African slaves brought many of their native fruits and vegetables to the Americas, including YAMS, watermelon, okra, and several varieties of beans, all of which were soon adopted into the diets of their owners. Slaves who were taken into the plantation owner’s house as cooks and household servants learned to combine their own food with their masters’ food. African American cuisine also grew out of the slaves’ resourcefulness in using the cast-off ingredients of the master’s meals. For example, they developed methods to cook parts of the pig not eaten by their owner’s family, feasting on the snout, ears, feet, tail, ribs, thighs (hocks), stomach (maw), and small intestines (which when boiled and fried are known as chitterlings, or "chitlins").

The West African diet featured starchy foods such as rice and yams, both of which became important parts of the African American diet. Although African slaves did not introduce rice into the Americas, their experience with rice cultivation in Africa helped make possible large-scale rice production in the Carolinas and the Gulf Coast states. Using both African and American cooking methods, African American slaves roasted, boiled, fried, and baked native yams and sweet potatoes. Sweet potato pie continues to be a popular Southern dessert.

Beans were a major component of the African diet and were brought to the Americas by slaves. As in Africa, these bean varieties, including black-eyed peas, lima beans, and kidney beans, were typically simmered and flavored with a piece of meat. Another popular African import, the okra plant, was usually fried or boiled and is a principal ingredient in gumbo, a spicy Cajun dish that is associated with Louisiana’s Creole culture but has its roots in seventeenth-century Africa.

Chicken, fish, and goat constituted important sources of protein for West Africans. While Africans usually cooked these meats in stews or over flames, many slaves in America adopted the European practice of frying meat, which best prevented it from spoiling on road trips. Fried chicken was developed in the South during the nineteenth century and quickly became popular throughout the United States. In addition to chicken, the meats most widely consumed by African American slaves were pork, opossum, and raccoon.

In the eastern colonies the mingling of Native American, Anglo, and African cultures produced a hybrid cuisine that included, among other things, barbecue. Many of the Africans who came to colonial South Carolina arrived from the WEST INDIES, where, as linguistic evidence suggests, barbecue originated (barbacoa). Thus, enslaved Africans may have learned some culinary techniques, including barbecue, from West Indies. When cooking over a fire, American slaves began to baste their meats with sauce instead of serving the sauce on the side, as had been the practice in Africa. Regional differences in livestock availability caused "barbecue" to mean pork in the eastern United States and beef in the western United States.

The West African tradition of cooking all edible parts of plants and animals helped the slaves to survive in the United States. Although Europeans occasionally ate the leaves of plants, slaves often prepared the leaves of plants, especially collards, by simmering them in oil, peppers, and spices. They also creatively processed and cooked corn, the food most often made available to them by their owners. From corn, slaves made corn bread, grits (bleached and hulled corn kernels), hoecakes (cornmeal cooked on the blade of a hoe over a flame), and hush puppies (deep-fried cornmeal with onions and spices).

In spite of emancipation, urbanization, and migration to the cities of the North, African Americans have preserved their foods and cooking methods. In the twentieth century, African American foods have been produced for the mass market, and many celebrated soul food restaurants have opened, most notably Sylvia’s in HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY. Today, African American cuisine is heavily influenced by Caribbean and South American cooking, including dishes such as Jamaican jerk chicken and fried plantains, and bean dishes such as Puerto Rican habichuelas and Brazilian feijoada (Bernstein).

It may be time to rethink your diet... the Carribeans did!

Authors: Paulette Sinclair-Weir

Source: faqs.org

Travel advertisements for the Caribbean Islands portray long stretches of sun-drenched beaches and swaying palm trees, with people dancing to jazz, calypso, reggae, or meringue music. Indeed, the beauty, warmth, and lush landscapes had Christopher Columbus in awe in 1492 when he came upon these tropical islands, stretching approximately 2,600 miles between Florida and Venezuela.

European Settlement

The Arawaks and Caribs, the first natives of the islands, were not treated kindly, however, as the Spanish, French, Dutch, and British conquered the islands at different periods, all but wiping out the native populations. Today, only a few aboriginals remain in the Caribbean.

The European settlers soon realized that sugarcane was a profitable crop that could be exported to the European market. However, there was a shortage of European farmers, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar plantations. The slave trade started in 1698. European settlers fought to keep their territories and hoped for great wealth, while actively pursuing the sugar and slave trades.

Two things changed the situation on the islands. In 1756, missionaries from Germany (Moravian Protestants), came to the islands, though the landowners were opposed to their presence, fearing that any education of the slaves could lead to a revolution. At about the same time a German scientist by the name of Margraf discovered that sugar could be produced from beets, and many European countries began to produce their own sugar.

In 1772, after many revolts and uprisings, the Europeans began to free their slaves. The sugar plantations still needed laborers, however, and indentured workers were brought from China and India to work in the fields. Sugar cane, and its by-products, molasses and rum, brought great prosperity to the settlers. However, not wanting to depend solely on sugar, they began to grow yams, maize, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, coconuts, and pineapples on a very large scale. Coffee also began to flourish. Many of the islands had wild pigs and cattle on them, and spiced, smoked meat became part of the diet . Today, jerk meat is a specialty.

Foods of the Islands

The foods of the Caribbean are marked by a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, and spices, all of which contribute to the area's unique cuisine. Foods of Creole, Chinese, African, Indian, Hispanic, and European origin blend harmoniously to produce mouth-watering dishes.

Fruits and Vegetables.

There are many fruits and vegetables found in the various Caribbean Islands, and because many of them have been exported to North America and Europe, people have become familiar with them. This exotic array of fruits and vegetables in vibrant colors forms the heart of island cooking.

Chayote, also called Christophene or Cho-cho, is a firm pear-shaped squash used in soups and stews. The Chinese vegetable bokchoy (or pakchoy) has become widely used on the islands. Plantains, which resemble bananas, are roasted, sautéed, fried, and added to stews and soups. The breadfruit grows profusely, and is either boiled or baked, sliced, and eaten hot, or ground into flour. The breadfruit blossoms make a very good preserve.

Yucca, also known as cassava or manioc, is a slender tuber with bark-like skin and a very starchy flesh that must be cooked and served like a potato, or it can be made into cassava bread. Mangoes can be picked from the tree and eaten by peeling the skin and slicing the flesh off the large pit. They are used in salads, desserts, frozen drinks, and salsa. Papaya, which has a cantaloupe-like flavor, contains the enzyme papain, which aids in digestion. To be eaten, the black seeds must be removed and the flesh scooped out.

The soursop is a large, oval, dark-green fruit with a thick skin that is soft to the touch when it ripens. The fruit has a creamy flesh with a sweet, tart flavor. Its rich custard-like flavor can be made into a sherbet, ice cream, or refreshing drink.

Spices and Condiments.

The food of the Caribbean can be highly spiced. The Scotch bonnet, a colorful pepper with a hot aroma, is widely used in soups, salads, sauces, and marinades. Some other important spices are annatto, curry, pimento, cinnamon, and ginger. Annatto seeds are often steeped in oil and used to flavor soups, stews, and fish dishes. Curry powder is made from a variety of freshly grounded spices. Curry dishes and hot sauces, which are used regularly in cooking, were brought to the islands by Indian settlers.

Pimento, also known as allspice, is used in pickles, marinades, soups, and stews and is an important ingredient in jerking, a method of cooking meat and poultry over an open fire. To bring out the flavor of meat and chicken, they are marinated in a mixture of scallions, garlic, thyme, onion, lemon juice, and salt. The spices and the method of slow cooking over a fire give jerk meat its distinctive flavor.

Protein Sources.

Although fish, conch (a pink shellfish), goat meat, pork, and beef are used throughout the Caribbean, legumes make up a fair percentage of the region's protein intake. Kidney and lima beans, chickpeas, lentils, black-eyed peas, and other legumes are used in soups, stews, and rice dishes. Accra fritters, made from soaked black-eyed peas that are mashed, seasoned with pepper, and then fried, is a dish of West African origin similar to the Middle Eastern falafel. Sancocho is a hearty Caribbean stew made with vegetables, tubers, and meats.

Cooking Methods.

A "cook-up" dish is one made with whatever ingredients an individual has on hand, and is an opportunity to be creative. Such a dish will often include rice, vegetables, and possibly meat. By adding coconut milk, this could turn into an enticing coconut-scented pilaf. Burning sugar to color stews is another technique used in island cooking. This process begins by heating oil, then adding sugar, and stirring until the sugar becomes an amber color.

The roti is a griddle-baked flour wrapping that is filled with curried meat, chicken, or potatoes. Coucou, or fungi, is a cornmeal mush that is served with meat, poultry, fish, or vegetable dishes.

Beverages and Desserts.

A variety of fruit beverages are often served in the Caribbean. Beverages include green tea and "bush tea," served sweetened with sugar or honey, with or without milk. Bush tea is an infusion of tropical shrubs, grasses, and leaves that has a number of medicinal uses. People drink it as a remedy for gas, the common cold, asthma , high blood pressure , fever, and other ailments. Sweetened commercial drinks made from carrot, beet, guava, tamarind, and other fruits and vegetables are also popular.

A number of fermented drinks are also popular. Garapina is made from pineapple peelings, while mauby is made from the bark of the mauby tree. Grated ginger is used to produce ginger beer. Horlicks is a malted milk made with barley.

POPULAR DISHES OF SELECTED CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

Island	Special dishes
Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis	Fish soup, pepper pot soup (any available fish, meat, chicken, and vegetables cooked in fermented cassava juice); saltfish with avocado and eggplant
Barbados	Flying fish; jug-jug (mashed stew of pigeon peas, usually served at Christmas) Black pudding (a type of sausage made by combining cooked rice mixed with fresh pig's blood, seasoned with salt, pepper, and other condiments, and placed in thoroughly cleaned pieces of pig's intestine, and then tied on both ends and boiled in seasoned water)
Belize	Rice and chicken, tamales, conch fritters, refried beans and iswa (fresh corn tortillas)
Dominica	Tannia (coco, a starch tuber soup); mountain chicken (frog's legs)
Grenada	Callaloo (soup with green vegetables) Lambi souse (conch marinated in lime juice, hot pepper, onion); oil-down (a highly seasoned dish of coconut milk and salted fish)
Guyana	Mellagee (one-pot stew of pickled meat/fish and coconut milk with tubers and vegetables); rice treat (rice with shrimp, vegetables, and pineapple)
Jamaica	Saltfish and ackee (a fruit commonly used as a vegetable, boiled and then sautéed in oil); escoveitched fish (fried fish marinated in vinegar spices, seasoning); roasted breadfruit; asham or brown George (parched dried corn that is finely beaten in a mortar, sifted, and mixed with sugar)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Stewed shark
British Virgin Islands	Fish chowder, conch salad, saltfish and rice
Trinidad and Tobago	Pelau (rice with meat, fish, peas, vegetables); pakoras; kachouri; palouri (fried vegetable fritters)
Guadeloupe and Martinique	Mechoui (spit-roasted sheep); pate en pot (finely chopped sheep and lamb parts cooked into a thick, highly seasoned stew)

Fruit is eaten anytime of the day, but is not considered a dessert unless prepared in a fruit salad or some other form. Coconut and banana form the basis for many desserts. A sweet pudding that goes by many names (e.g., duckunoo, blue drawers, pain me, paimee, and konkee) is made from grated banana, plantain, or sweet potato, which is then sugared, spiced, and mixed with coconut milk or grated coconut, and then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in spiced water. A prepared sweet pone (pudding) cake or pie is a popular dessert. Black fruitcake, made from dried fruits soaked in wine, is popular at Christmas time, and is also used for weddings and other celebrations.

Health Issues

In the Caribbean region, nutrition-related chronic diseases are common, threatening the well-being of the people of the islands. In the 1950s, the governments of the Caribbean were concerned about the malnutrition that permeated the region. They were able to increase the protein and calorie needs by making meat, fats, oils, and refined sugar more available. The health and nutrition initiatives introduced helped curbed the malnutrition, but new and related health and nutrition problems began to emerge.

The health administrators of the Caribbean region are concerned with the rise of iron-deficiency anemia in pregnant women and school-aged children due to inadequate iron intake and poor absorption . The increased incidence of diabetes , hypertension , coronary heart disease , cancer , and obesity , especially in the thirty-five-and-over age group, is thought to be directly linked to the existing lifestyle and dietary practices of the islanders.

The Caribbean Islands have seen a proliferation of fast-food restaurants, and the increased consumption of meals high in fat , sugar, and salt has contributed to the increase in chronic diseases. In addition, there has been a reduction in the amount of cereals, grains, fruits, vegetables, tubers, and legumes that are eaten. The popularity of fast foods among the young has led the government to focus on improving nutrition in the schools. Also contributing to the health problems is the dependency on costly imported processed foods that do the body harm. Overconsumption of imported foods high in fat and sodium has led to a deterioration of the health status of people throughout the region, with an increase in health problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Innovative Programs

Due to insufficient resources and less than adequate planning, the school feeding programs on most of the islands exhibit many shortcomings. However, on the island of Dominica, where a self-help initiative involving the parents was introduced, the eating habits of school-aged children improved and the parents and communities adopted many of the program's menus and preparation methods. As a result, school attendance increased and the attention span of the children in class improved.

School nutrition programs need constant monitoring to improve the nutritional status of the children involved. Furthermore, a good nutrition promotion campaign must be designed to educate and promote a healthy lifestyle for the population at large.

The Caribbean region has the tremendous task of putting in place appropriate policies, plans, and programs to address the changing health and disease patterns of the region's people. This effort is made more difficult because of the socioeconomic, political, and cultural differences among the Caribbean countries. The various countries must not only examine the food availability and how it is consumed, but they must also assess and evaluate the quality of the food and the nutrition intake of those most at risk.

The Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI), established in 1967, aims to improve the food and nutrition status in member countries, which include Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Christopher-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

The governments of the Caribbean have come together under an initiative called Caribbean Cooperation in Health. They hope to work closely together through five types of activities: service, education training, providing information, coordination, and research. The food goals of each country must be analyzed, with care and attention paid to the agricultural policies and economic opportunities in each specific country.

Forming Healthy Communities

Desiring a longer and richer quality of life, many governments of the Caribbean Islands have introduced programs to combat chronic diseases and promote a more physically active lifestyle. For example, in Grenada, a campaign to "grow what you eat and eat what you grow" demonstrates a move to increase consumption of local foods.

Adequate nutrition cannot be achieved without the consumption of sufficient foods containing a wide array of nutrients . Poor health status, whether as a result of insufficient food intake, overconsumption, or nutrition imbalance, threatens longevity and increases health care costs. The challenge is to improve the availability of nutritious foods and the eating habits of the varied population (Sinclair-Weir ).