"No matter their culture, everyone has some traditional food that feeds their soul and warms their heart. The goal is to bring the campus community together based on this principle." ~ Jonathan Poullard
If you've read any other portion of this blog site, you may have been discouraged the point was to get you to look at these issues critically and to understand the basis of them, but also to get you to analyze how you feel about the issues, particularly if you found some of the information upsetting and inflammatory.
But there is a lot of emotionally charged and deeply analytical investigation that must take place in order to identify the roots of many of the issues that African Americans face. Many times we let ourselves become discouraged by the information and the content and fail to look at the causes that most significantly underlie many of the historic and systemic problems that we face and the failure to really make an effort to make the distinctions between the economics, the math and the science of how these problems emerge limit our understanding of how to liberate ourselves from the social and spiritual implications of these issues. Instead we look at ourselves, as if something must be faulty, or look to others because we can only seem to understand that their participation, in the thinking, the actions, and their appalling silence must be a part of the problem, without understanding how this kind of thinking is ineffectual or why it won't make the problem go away.
This approach used in the earlier posts was used to emulate how very similar our current methodology to approaching and dealing with these socio cultural issues issues has held us back. Yes we have gained a better understanding of the systemic oppression that has plagued the African American community and others who have been impoverished and systemically exploited, but this approach is one of the primary causes that black liberation has not been able to be achieved for over 100 years. We don't have to be scholars or educators in order to see that a problem exists. But there comes a time when it becomes counter intuitive to pick apart a problem until there is no meat left on the cage and then quietly surrender ourselves to the systemic framework that surrounds us without having taken the appropriate measures to eradicate ourselves from it. No I'm not talking about Malcom X's "by any means necessary approach", or even the active non-violent resistance of the late Dr. Martin Luther King.
While these practices may have served its purpose at the time, there is a growing criticism that although this method does provide a clear understanding of the impact that the history has had, it often lacks clarity as to how to implement creative problem solving toward eradicating the injustices that continue to feed these cycles of internalized oppression and social injustice. The most appropriate step forward means that we are going to have to start looking more closely at:
how we let these challenges and investigations shape our mind
where we invest our priorities and our money
what attitudes we allow to fuel our approach to life
and how we let our fear of uncertainty and reckless behaviors determine how we see ourselves.
The time has now come for us to begin seeking practical solutions to dealing with injustices and challenges that are faced rather than feeding upon the inner and outer conflict it has historically created. We simply cannot afford to continue to become discouraged by the politics and lack of education or give up. Where information was once limited and restricted to the educated elite, the development of communications and technology, we have much more access to not just literature, but all sorts of forms of multimedia and outlets for mass communication that can help us develop practical solutions to our problems. The challenge now is how to do we begin to recognize the problems that exist in front of us and empower other members of our community to learn how to gain equal access to these kinds of information so that they can create solutions for themselves. And how do we adopt this education into our cultural values, so that we associate healthy and sustainable living and fiscal practices with part of what it means to be the embodiment of black success, empowerment and good health?
“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”
We cannot allow our circumstances to corrupt our will to move forward and keep us from moving in the right direction. Otherwise we are simply condemning ourselves to become imprisoned by our own state of apathy and negligence. Focusing too much upon the destructive behavior of others, or the frailties that lie within ourselves blinds us to the greatest resources we have in creating a more positive and sustainable future, the wonderful gifts that we hide within ourselves. Admittedly, it may be time to walk away from continuing to contribute to any system that has been designed to keep the poorest in a state of poverty. If we are to learn how to recognize opportunity and establish any real liberation we must learn to adapt our education and lifestyle practices so that we can rise up in a more progressive direction and begin to take more solid steps forward toward healthy autonomy.
I believe that it is absolutely necessary for African Americans to understand and embrace the principles of holistic education and sustainability in order to begin to appreciate the gifts that will allow us to secure our own futures. Until we begin to see the impact of our choices from a more enlightened perspective, we will never fully understand the importance of the roles we play in the way that we invest in our personal growth and the needs of those who look to us for guidance within our community.
One of the greatest quotes I read today said the following:
"Your life is an occasion; rise to it"
We must begin to embrace our roles in life as if the actions that we take can serve a greater purpose and be more meaningful in the lives of another, even if it is only those that come after us and look up to us. Do you want to be remembered as the person who had so much potential who never made it? Or would you rather be the person who others look to with admiration because they have truly achieved something significant in their lives and have learned to be free because of it?
African Americans often define the way we see leadership as a phenomenon requiring great orators or community activists such as those who marked the explosion of the civil rights movement back into the sixties. The African American community always looked to leaders who were larger than life; [like MLK, and Malcom X, the church or other community leaders to give them guidance they needed to add meaning and purpose to their lives. While this has been helpful to many, there are still many African Americans who live out the mundane activities of their daily lives without ever realizing that they also possess this power through their smallest actions who have the power to influence revolutionary change through the gifts that they harness from within themselves. And I don't just mean through tasks like voting.
Many African American leaders could not have been able to accomplish what they could have had it not been for the actions and support their community members. Sit ins, strikes and many other forms of support were necessary in order to give these leaders the power to accomplish the achievements in civil rights that they accomplished. These men were not simply the icons themselves, but represented vast networks of support within the African American community that entrusted these men to speak on their behalf, but half of the magic was in the people who inspired the speeches they wrote and the memories they left. Because had these courageous men and women felt as if they had no one left to guide them. What other African Americans don't realize is that had they not been there to support these leaders, many of the leaders in our community would have probably led very quiet, stifling and fearful lives --or ended up dead or in jail like countless others who had not yet learned to become organized.
“Don't be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That's where the joy and the adventure lie.”
~Herbie Hancock
But being a Leader does not always mean that you always have to be the first to fight back, or putting yourself out in the forefront, or get your behind kicked like some martyr in order to be effective and meaningful to the cause of liberation. Leadership typically comes from the most unlikely places; like those who are skilled yet cautious, or those who are unskilled and reluctant, but step up and face challenges because those who were expected to lead could or would not.
What makes a leader is not the talents and skills a person has or the material wealth or achievements. Being a leader is about understanding the possibility of the capacity of an individual to learn beyond the limitations of one's circumstances --and then to act upon this new found knowledge. Most leaders that you talk to will speak of numerous instances when they were afraid or uncertain of something and had to learn to intuit when an opportunity arose to choose something different. It was in this act of taking the small steps to better understand how to improve their situations, following through with the act of understanding their own ability to grasp it and following through with that commitment that allowed these leaders to stand up on their own --and rise to the occasion so that they could finally be free of the challenges that were holding them back.
In order to end poverty and hunger, or the targeted distribution of unhealthy and unsafe foods to those who are impoverished, those who have access to information and educate ourselves about social and economic sustainability will have to begin being developing more actions and behaviors that are solutions oriented, such as bringing in urban horticulture and sustainability practices into our local communities.
But our actions must serve as an invitation to awaken from the trance of everyday life and to be refreshed by the vibrance and invigoration that is available by connecting with the healing power of nature's gifts through urban gardening to our body and minds. By learning to grow our own food we can rebuild our spiritual connection with ourselves, the community and the sacred abundance of the earth [a gift that we seem to have, up until now discarded to the wayside, even though it is designed to serve and meet many of our specific needs].
All of the hungry and many of the overweight are afflicted with micronutrient deficiency (lack of vitamins and minerals). Over two billion people, the vast majority of whom are women and children, suffer from micronutrient deficiencies (UN/SCN, 2004; Gardner and Halwell, 2000). Horticultural crops can play a vital role in solving this global micronutrient crisis. Vegetables and fruits are the most sustainable and affordable sources of micronutrients in diets (UN, 2004).
Healthy diets improve the learning capacity of children and the productivity of workers (Weinberger, 2004). ln contrast, micronutrient-deficient diets lead to reduced mental and physical development, poor performance in school, loss of productivity in the workplace, and the likelihood of poverty in future generations (Haddad et al., 2002).
Vitamin A deficiency alone weakens the immune system of 40% of children in developing countries (UN, 2004). This deficiency increases a child's risk of severe illness and death from infectious diseases, which are the leading causes of death in developing countries. Vitamin A deficiency contributes to higher rates of anemia as well as morbidity from common childhood infections such as respiratory and diarrheal diseases (Sommer and West, 1996), measles (West, 2000) and malaria (Shankar et al., 1999). Deficiencies of vitamin A and other micronutrients may increase the likelihood of HIV/AIDS transmission from mother to child and hasten the progression of the disease in infected persons (Fawzi et al., 2002; Semba et al., 1994).
Iron deficiency affects at least 2 billion, and perhaps up to 3.5 billion people. Shortage of iron in the diet causes reduced productivity, which results in economic losses of billions of dollars globally (Weinberger, 2004; UN, 2004). These losses are so substantial that economists at the Copenhagen Consensus in 2004 agreed that relieving iron and other micronutrient deficiencies should be the second highest priority in world development initiatives, second only to relieving the HIV/AIDS crisis (Economist, 2004).
Although essential in diets, not enough vegetables and fruits are available, especially to poor families in developing countries. Rates of production of vegetables and fruits cannot satisfy consumer demand and these micronutrient-rich food sources are often too expensive for the poor. Production of vegetables and fruits unfortunately is often accompanied by misuse and abuse of pesticides with their negative effects on human health and potential impact on the environment. In the least developed countries, the consumption of fruits and vegetables is declining (FAO 2004b). Steps must be taken to reverse this trend through provision of a range of safe, affordable and nutritious vegetables.
To read the full text and literature references, please download the Strategic Plan.
Source: Recovery!: Educational Information on Eating Disorders
Volume 7, Issue 6
Nov/Dec 2006
Nutrition and Mental Health: Eat Your Way to Mental Health:
by Jennifer Friesen, M.A.
We often hear about how we are affected physically by poor nutrition, but what is not so commonly known is how nutrition affects our mental health. Co-morbidity is common with eating disorders; a single person may not only struggle with an eating disorder, it could also be accompanied by depression, obsessions and compulsions, and anxiety, to name a few. There is a high likelihood that these other issues are affected by the poor nutrition that accompanies an eating disorder, and that consequently, increasing proper nutrition into one’s diet is one important component of improving mental health.
Often times we fail to make the connection between mental health and nutrition. We don’t realize sometimes that what we are feeding our bodies can be affecting our psychological well being. Are you feeding your body, mind and soul? Increasing your nutrition can significantly improve your mental health.
Mood Disorders
Zerbe states that in eating disorders, depression is often a result of starvation or poor nutrition (35). With a lack of food comes a lack of vital nutrients that help the body function smoothly, and depression, like other mental illnesses, can be affected by biological as well as psychological, emotional, social or spiritual issues. Carbohydrates, for example, are important for fighting depression, because when carbohydrates are taken in, an amino acid called tryptophan gets into the brain to make serotonin (a neurotransmitter) which helps to increase positive mood (Beck, 254-5). According to Bourne, other ways of getting tryptophan, and thus increasing serotonin levels, are through eating turkey, tuna, eggs or milk (330).
One study says that low amounts of folate, vitamin B12, iron, zinc, and selenium are more common with depressed people than non-depressed people, as well as Omega-3 fatty acids. Fish oils and folic acid supplements have been used to treat it (Bodnar & Wisner). Hallahan and Garland suggest that a diet containing more fish and fresh vegetables could significantly decrease depression and maybe even other mental illnesses. Omega-3 fats are used by the body’s nerve and brain cells, and possibly also in the formation of mood-affecting hormones. There seems to also be some connection between low omega-3 fats and bipolar disorder(Beck, 127). Sources of Omega-3 fats are fish, (especially oilier ones, like salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel and herring), flaxseed oil, canola oil, walnuts, soybeans, whole grains and leafy greens (Beck, 20).
Another substance, called inositol, seems to have some effect on depression and panicdisorder. It is a part of phytic acid and is related to vitamin B, and can be found in citrus fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Cell membranes in the body need inositol; it is contained in the central nervous system, and is necessary for healthy nerves and muscles. It is thought that inositol helps with the reception of serotonin in the brain, and serotonin in turn helps to create feelings of happiness, calmness and relaxation(Beck, 130).
Lecithin is also thought to have an effect on bipolar disorder. It is made up of phosphatidylcholine, fatty acids and carbohydrate. From phosphatidylcholine comes choline (also in the B vitamin family), which becomes a part of brain tissues, and also helps build ecetylcholine, a chemical that contributes tomemory. Choline is found in egg yolks, liver, soybeans, legumes, oatmeal and cabbage (Beck, 131).
Vitamin B6 seems to be important for mood as well, and is another substance involved in producing serotonin. It can be found especially in meat, fish, poultry, whole grains, bananas and potatoes. B12 and folate are used for synthesizing SAMe (S-Adenosyl-Methionine), which helps produce neurotransmitters. Folate also contributes to the production of serotonin, andlow folate levelsmay contribute to poor response to some depression medications (Beck, 256). Sources of folate include spinach, artichokes, asparagus, lentils, dried peas and beans, chicken liver, orange juice and wheat germ. Best food sources of B12 include all animal foods, and soy and rice beverages are sometimes fortified with B12 as well (Beck, 256).
Cholesterol is often labeled as “harmful” and to be avoided, but one study suggests that low cholesterol is associated with suicidality, depression, impulsivity, and aggression (Brunner, Parhofer, Schwandt & Bronisch). Another study by Muldoon, McKeown, and Cuffe also found that low cholesterol is associated with higher amounts of agression. Thus, it seems that some amounts of cholesterol are necessary for mental health.
ADHD
Protein is important for people with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (Beck, 175), as well as iron and magnesium (Beck, 178). There seems to be some connection between ADHD and Omega-3 fatty acids (Beck, 127). These may not be causes or cures, but they are important factors to consider for maintaining it, for adults or for parents of children with ADHD.
Insomnia
The same carbohydrate-serotonin process that affects depression can be helpful in improving sleep, as well as diminishing pain, because serotonin contributes to relaxation and happiness. For example, a bowl of cereal or piece of toast could help in getting a good sleep. Vitamin B12 could also help to fight insomnia (Beck, 393).
Anxiety
Carbohydrates also can affect the level of stress hormones, improve mental performance, and decrease stress induced depression (Beck, 518). Thus carbohydrates are important in coping with stress, as are vitamins B and C, Zinc, Calcium and Magnesium; all are used by the body in dealing with stress and can in fact be depleted in the process (Beck, 519), so it is important to have enough of them. B vitamins help with the functioning of the nervous system, and a lack of them can lead to anxiety, irritability, restlessness, fatigue, and emotional instability. As we often hear,Vitamin C enhances the immune system and the body’s ability to heal; what is not so commonly known is that it also strengthens the adrenal glands, which in turn contribute to coping with stress. Calcium helps in the transmission of nerve signals, and low levels of calcium can cause nerve cell overactivity, which is a part of anxiety; thus, calcium can help to calm anxiety (Bourne, 320). Because anxiety involves the brain and nerves, omega-3 fatty acids are important in dealing with anxiety as well as mood (Bourne, 328).
Sources of vitamin C are citrus fruit, strawberries, kiwi, cantaloupe, broccoli, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, cabbage, tomatoes, and potatoes. (Beck, 519). Zinc is found in seafood, red meat, poultry, yogurt, wheat bran, wheat germ, whole grains and enriched breakfast cereals (Beck, 62). Magnesium is found in wheat bran and germ, almonds, brazil nuts, peaunts, sunflower seeds, beans and peas, dates, figs, spinach, and swiss chard (Beck, 48). Calcium can be found in dairy products, leafy vegetables, beans, tofu packaged with calcium, sardines, canned salmon including the bones, broccoli, rutabaga, figs, almonds, and molasses (Bourne, 320, Beck, 44).
All this evidence suggests that eating nutritious food not only improves physical health, but mental health as well. Taking this idea further, we can conclude that because eating disorders often withhold nutrition from the body, they might be a contributing factor in other mental health issues. Fighting an eating disorder, then, can also be a way of improving mental health. Notice, too, that the nutrients mentioned here come from a wide variety of foods and food groups. A balanced diet will help you to feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally: feel more positive, more focused, more calm, more equipped to live life to the fullest (Friesen).
This is one just report of numerous amounts of information available online to holistic approaches to treating various illnesses. Because many African Americans do not have consistent access to the internet or an awareness of nutrition based therapies, they often miss out on the benefits that tools like the internet can be used to treat illnesses such as ADHD, depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder through simple modifications that can be made in their diet.
So how do we make this information more accessible to those who do not have resources like computer access or the basic literary and technological skills to access these remedies online? In many cities, public libraries are making internet more accessible to those who can read and have basic computer knowledge. But in order to make more people aware of how illnesses can be cured or better monitored through nutrient alternatives, there will have to be a movement among leaders in local communities, schools and churches to make this information more readily available.
With the rising cost of health care and prescriptions, it seems counter-intuitive to continue to rack up debt or have to depend upon the inadequate services of a health care system negligent of those without insurance just to be able to treat illnesses and diseases that could be prevented through the simple modifications of lifestyle behaviors and the integration of more nutrients into their diets.
The practice of herbalism originates back to the beginnings of mankind when African healers and herbalists would administer herbs and ointments to treat common ailments or alleviate illness. Believed to be an inherent and evolutionary process it has been noted that even animals have developed the instinctual ability to seek out and consume certain varieties of plants when they are feeling ill.
While in later years, plant therapy, which had developed into a practice of eradicating the source of physical and spiritual ailments began to organize and establish itself as a more exclusive profession throughout the middle ages [through monastic orders], plants and herbs have become a very universal instrument used to serve vital functions in health and healing that transcends spiritual and cultural faiths and ideologies Natural).
Throughout African American literature and history, we hear many tales of characters who, facing the challenges of the social stigmas related to being black and under-assimilated in an oppressive white society suffer from physical and emotional breakdowns and are forced to play the consequences of their anxiety, depression and rage. Many African American studies analysts often refer to this phenomenon as internalized oppression, but seldom have looked into the direct correlation of how this anxiety, panic, and desperation correlate to the way that we treat and take care of ourselves.
It has been widely accepted that indicators such as environment, traumatic experience and family history are believed to be the underlying cause for the development of mental illness in the health of African Americans. While black scholars have been quick to fight to dispel the historic archetypes of the socially stunted portrayal of the American negro, there is still some consensus among the educated that some underlying problem does exist within the African American community that keeps some members of the community from progressing. And for generations researchers have debated whether the problem arises from some sort of inherent biological defect --passed down from generation to generation, or whether or not the problem is instead the byproduct of something much more destructive and environmentally systemic. Let's just say that the experiences I have learned about in mental health survivor health groups and the information in this video does not inspire much confidence. [disclaimer: some of this information is a bit inflammatory, so if you'd like feel free to skip ahead]
Authors and intellectuals such as Dr. Cornel West of Princeton University write about the issue of black nihilism, despair and rage, looking for some sort of spiritual answer or social movement to bring about transformation with models used in liberation theology. But there has always been some sort of link in the chain of information that will bring this endless soul searching, tireless cycle of victimization to an end. And unfortunately the only remedy seems to be getting out of the environment and reshaping past experiences in a way to help African Americans to understand them better, without necessarily changing the behaviors that stunt communication and the ability for those still embedded and connected to the resource deprived areas of the African American communities to progress.
In the report, The Mis(Diagnosis) of Mental Disorder in African Americans, Harold W. Neighbors, an associate professor in Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at The University of Michigan shares:
The notion that African American psychiatric inpatients are at higher risk of misdiagnosis than white patients has been a major topic of discussion since the publication of a series of highly influential papers in the early-to-middle 1980's. Although the misdiagnosis argument is varied and complex, the fundamental premise espoused by most scholars working in this area is that traditional mental health services have not been sensitive enough to ethnic differences in the ways that patients recognize, define and express symptoms of emotional distress. Clarification of how ethnicity and culture influence psychiatric diagnosis is important because mental health policy and service delivery planning are based on reported rates of disorders. These statistics are, in turn, based on the outcome of a diagnostic process that is assumed to have an acceptable level of accuracy. If the misdiagnosis of African Americans is widespread, patient counts by diagnostic group and resulting mental health policy decisions will be based upon faulty data (Neighbors).
Misperceptions that persons with schizophrenia are violent or dangerous lie at the heart of stigmatizations of the disease. For instance, numerous studies have found that physicians, police officers, and the general public overestimate the risk of aggression in patients with schizophrenia more often than in other patient groups. My project tells the story of how these modern-day American conceptualizations of schizophrenic patients as violent emerged during the civil-rights era of the 1950s-1970s in response to a larger set of conversations about race. I integrate institutional, professional, and cultural discourses in order to trace shifts in U.S. popular and medical understandings of schizophrenia from a disease of white docility to one of “Negro” hostility, and from a disease that was nurtured to one that was feared. The first and longest section of the paper tracks the medcalization of race and schizophrenia within a particular institution, the Ionia Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Located in a largely white area of rural Michigan, Ionia was the receiving hospital for prisoners deemed mentally ill by the courts and penal institutions throughout the state. I access an extensive archive of medical records and administrative documents to show that, starting in the 1950s, schizophrenia became a diagnostic term disproportionately applied to the hospital’s growing population of African American men for reasons having as much to do with perceived threats of violence as with criteria for mental illness. The paper’s second section contextualizes the Ionia case histories within shifting psychiatric definitions of schizophrenia, as read through an extensive analysis of published case studies and classification systems. Of particular interest are the ways in which published case studies of the 1960s and 1970s explicitly connected the clinical presentations of African American men with the politics of the civil rights movement in ways that, in its worst moments, treated aspirations for liberation and civil rights as symptoms of mental illness. Finally, the third section reads these shifts in psychiatric nosology within changing American cultural concerns about black masculinity. I use media representations, films, music, protest memoirs, and literary texts to explore ways in which civil-rights era debates about the role of violence in promoting social change mapped onto descriptions of schizophrenia as a violent disease. I also show how proponents of Black Power appropriated psychiatric language to dramatize a response to the “insanity” of racism through militant resistance.
Triangulating the historical connections between institutional forces, psychiatric practices, and civil-rights politics ultimately helps me grapple with some of the seemingly naturalized characteristics of present-day schizophrenia discourse—characteristics that often appear denatured of their explicit connections to race. These include cultural tropes of angry, homeless mentally ill persons or findings demonstrating that persons with schizophrenia reside in prisons far more often than in psychiatric care facilities (Metzl).
It seems that these days African Americans are more afraid to seek treatment and trust the help of those who have been designated to them, because of the disparity of the quality of care given from those entrusted to protect them, those who assume their distress is an enigma tied to their poverty and their race. Instead harsh sentences, forced medications and other forms of "tough" or disinterested engagement occur by medical practitioners. Or patients are simply medicated, many times to incorrect experimental dosages in order to curb behaviors, limit arousal and over-stimulation and leaving the brain functioning dangerously impaired. If you talk to many uninsured African Americans who have had to go through the tax funded health care system, many are reluctant to return to health care providers because of the treatment they have received, hoping to simply suffer in silence, for fear of abuse, of being ostracized, humiliated, or left in despair. This attributes to the desperation and panic that leads to many African Americans instead opting to rely upon drugs, alcohol and tobacco as alternative forms of self medication, because nothing they have ever been forced to depend upon has been proven to work.
Those who experience traumatic experiences are more likely to suffer from more extreme symptoms of mental distress when they are aggravated by the lack of proper nutrition or over-consumption of certain types of food [ie caffeine, refined sugar] leading to increased physical disorders; diabetes, nervous and metabolic imbalances and higher disability and mortality rates. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not just limited to the African American people, but is more likely to be diagnosed in other impoverished ethnicities and people living in malnourished communities all around the world.
Malnoutrition:
Malnutrition is the condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function.
What's interesting is that researchers and physicians have been investigating the links between malnutrition and mental illness for a very long time, and yet for some reason, in the African American community this is not yet common knowledge.
Click images to enlarge
Do these foods look familiar to you?
One thing that should also be noted is that the majority of African Americans who suffer from symptoms of malnourishment are not being underweight, but rather overweight as we often associate with poor nutrition and an unhealthy diet.
POOR NUTRITION & SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE: “The 21st Century Plague”
According to Healthy People 2010, the two leading health indicators for the nation are lifestyle-related: (1) physical activity and (2) overweight and obesity.1
Poor nutrition and lack of appropriate physical activity are major causes of obesity and diabetes, which are considered national epidemics.2 Additionally, poor nutrition and physical inactivity contribute to a host of other diseases such as heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in the U.S.3. The enormous social and economic costs of these lifestyle issues have gotten the attention of our nation’s leaders, who are now summoning a major “call to action” across America: “Promoting healthy lifestyles should be a national priority, beginning in our schools and carrying over into our work places, communities, and especially into our health care system." 4
It is a common myth among many social and religious organizations that mental illness is caused by factors perceived to be disturbances of a spiritual nature. This creates a stigma against mental illness that has kept people, particularly in poor and ethnic communities from being aware how emotional and neurological imbalances can be remedied through diet modification and proper nutrition (Bridging).
Currently, approximately 1 in 4 adult Americans have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, which translates into about 58 million affected people [1]. Though the incidence of mental disorders is higher in America than in other countries, a World Health Organization study of 14 countries reported a worldwide prevalence of mental disorders between 4.3 percent and 26.4 percent [2]. In addition, mental disorders are among the leading causes for disability in the US as well as other countries. Common mental health disorders include mood disorders, anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorders, eating disorders, attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), and autism. However, the four most common mental disorders that cause disabilities are major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) [3,4].
Typically, most of these disorders are treated with prescription drugs, but many of these prescribed drugs cause unwanted side effects. For example, lithium is usually prescribed for bipolar disorder, but the high-doses of lithium that are normally prescribed causes side effects that include: a dulled personality, reduced emotions, memory loss, tremors, or weight gain [5,6]. These side effects can be so severe and unpleasant that many patients become noncompliant and, in cases of severe drug toxicity, the situation can become life threatening.
Researchers have observed that the prevalence of mental health disorders has increased in developed countries in correlation with the deterioration of the Western diet [7]. Previous research has shown nutritional deficiencies that correlate with some mental disorders [8,9]. The most common nutritional deficiencies seen in mental disorder patients are of omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that are precursors to neurotransmitters [10-16]. Compelling population studies link high fish consumption to a low incidence of mental disorders; this lower incidence rate has proven to be a direct result of omega-3 fatty acid intake [10,17,18]. One to two grams of omega-3 fatty acids taken daily is the generally accepted dose for healthy individuals, but for patients with mental disorders, up to 9.6 g has been shown to be safe and efficacious [19-21]. Western diets are usually also lacking in fruits and vegetables, which further contributes to vitamin and mineral deficiencies (Lakhan).
At more than any other time in our history, African Americans, particularly children within the last twenty years have been diagnosed with clinical illnesses, mood and behavioral disorders. Here are the factors that the National Alliance on Mental Illness have to attribute to the prevalence of the higher diagnosis mental health within the African American community:
African Americans in the United States are less likely to receive diagnoses and treatments for their mental illnesses than Caucasian Americans. Culture biases against mental health professionals and health care professionals in general prevent many African Americans from accessing care due to prior experiences with historical misdiagnoses, inadequate treatment, and a lack of cultural understanding; only 2% of psychiatrists, 2% of psychologists and 4% of social workers in the U.S. are African American.
African Americans tend to rely on family, religious and social communities for emotional support, rather than turning to health care professionals, even though this may at times be necessary.
Mental illness is frequently stigmatized and misunderstood in the African American community.
African Americans are often at a socioeconomic disadvantage in terms of accessing both medical and mental health care – in 2001, 20.2% of African Americans were uninsured.
Experiences of mental illness vary across cultures and some mental illnesses are more prevalent in the African American community compared to other cultures in the U.S.
Across a recent 15 year span, suicide rates increased 233% among African Americans aged 10 to 14 compared to 120% among Caucasian Americans in the same age group across the same span of time.
Somatization – the manifestation of physical illnesses related to mental health - occurs at a rate of 15% among African Americans and only 9% among Caucasian Americans.
Some studies suggest that African Americans metabolize medications more slowly than Caucasian Americans, yet they often receive higher doses of psychiatric medications, which may result in increased side effects and decreased medication compliance.
Social circumstances often serve as an indicator for the likelihood of developing a mental illness. African Americans are disproportionately more likely to experience social circumstances that increase their chances of developing a mental illness.
African Americans comprise 40% of the homeless population and only 12% of the U.S. population.
People experiencing homelessness are at a greater risk of developing a mental illness.
Nearly half of all prisoners in the United States are African American. Prison inmates are at a high risk of developing a mental illness.
Children in foster care and the child welfare system are more likely to develop mental illnesses. African American children comprise 45% of the public foster care population (NAMI).
And yet with all of the experimentation that occurs in state hospitals and the prison system on African Americans that has been done to "rehabilitate" institutionalized African Americans back into the segments of society that the rest of America doesn't have to look at, NAMI seems to have overlooked one of the primary causes of the biochemical imbalances that affect the mental health of African Americans that manifest itself into depression, anxiety, and panic that we have all learned to stigmatize -- the connection between these illnesses and the food that is either embraced or forced upon African American culture.
Unfortunately, the stigma with mental illness, generated from the greater community and fueled within the messages that we spread among ourselves, leads us to believe in the misconception that many of the mental challenges, stigmas, and desperation from feeling trauma or emotionally not well is the product of our mental capacities and not that we simply have not been taught the proper ways to take care of ourselves through the education of affordable nutrition, have access to safe facilities for physical activity, or educated and engaged people looking after our well being and mental health. For generations we have grown up listening to messages that something is wrong with our minds, or even worse that others believe that we are inferior because of our minds and we feed upon those messages until they manifest themselves into our reality. When the reality is that most of us have the mental capacity to learn and effectively communicate our own needs. The problem lies not in the genes or the experiences of our culture but that we have failed to pass down key aspects of our knowledge so that we can translate what we have learned into wisdom in order to benefit ourselves. When we are too distressed or uneducated about how we can improve our understanding of our own mental capacities we begin to believe the fallacy of others stigmas that tell us that we do not have the resources to grow and heal ourselves, and it is this attitude and the belief in this misconception that keeps us from becoming our greatest selves. Instead it is more beneficial for us to integrate more affirmative lessons that teach us how to modify our lifestyles so that they are sustainable so that we can learning how to practically take care of our economic situations through the investment that we make in our physical health.
The connection between nutrition and mental illness
Mental illness is often thought to be confined to the brain but balancing body chemistry via nutrition can have huge effects on mental illness. Many diseases are known to have their roots in nutritional imbalances and changing one’s diet or using nutritional supplements can often correct the imbalance creating the disease.
One of the pioneers of treating mental illness through nutrition is Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D. His belief was that different patients have different nutrient needs based on their individual biochemistry. He successfully treated mentally ill patients with mega doses of specific nutrients, and dietary changes that would address both immediate and long term causes of the disease. For example, individuals with mental illness are often found to have imbalances in zinc and copper levels, high or low levels of blood histamine, heavy metal toxicity, gluten or other food sensitivities, as well as deficiencies in B6, B3, manganese and vitamin C. Dr. Pfeiffer believed that the use of drugs only gave immediate results at the expense of long term health and should be reserved for the critically ill.
Mental illnesses and behavioral disorders that have been treated with nutrition include schizophrenia, anxiety, phobias, obsessions, depression, ADD, ADHS, autism and bi polar disorders. The Pfeiffer Treatment Center (named after Dr. Pfeiffer) is located outside of Chicago and specializes in the treatment of these biochemical imbalances using nutritional supplementation and diet.
There has been some remarkable research done about the correlations between more than just mental illness and food. According to this article about Poor Nutrition & Sedentary Lifestyle,
• Poor nutrition and lack of physical activity are responsible for an estimated 300,000 to 600,000 preventable deaths each year.
• An estimated one third of all cancers are attributable to poor nutrition, physical
inactivity, and being overweight.
• Since nutrition and physical activity are associated with many chronic conditions, it is important to note that more than 90 million Americans live with chronic illnesses, which represent 70% of all deaths, 60% of medical care costs, and one third of the years of potential life lost before age 65 in the U.S (Friesen).
Whether malnutrition is induced through an insufficient intake of daily calories, or through inefficient metabolic processes damaged through a legacy of abuse, the chronic effects of a lack of proper nutrition devastate the body and mind.
A healthy diet: Careful preparation of good and nutritious food helps to restore bodily health, mental health, and internal metabolic.
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies affect virtually all of the organs, and gastro intestinal systems, organ functioning, and mental processes are diminished from a lack of proper nutrition. Additionally, the impact of poor nutrition can increase further abuse.
In response to the massive sugar intakes of alcohol consumption, there is a pancreatic response and a corresponding over production of insulin which creates an induced state of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Low blood sugar, in addition to causing headaches and other physical symptoms, reduces energy levels and mental abilities, and can induce feelings of lethargy and depression. The solution to experienced hypoglycemia is further sugar consumption through alcohol for a temporary alleviation of experienced symptoms. This chronic low blood sugar partially explains the cravings towards consumption, and explains how proper nutrition, which restores blood sugar balance, can help to alleviate these cravings.
Chronically elevating and dropping blood sugar levels also greatly increases the risks of experienced type 2 diabetes, and many alcoholics ultimately battle with this condition from their years of abuse.
Poor nutrition influences the production of central nervous system neurotransmitters, and when neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin are diminished there is a resultant mood imbalance, and both a decreased ability to resist temptation, and a greater perceived need for the pleasurable effects of intoxication.
Restoring bodily health, mental health, and internal metabolic processes through excellent nutrition and through the use of vitamin and mineral supplements helps to reduce the experienced deficits of improper nutrition, and as a result to increase the resistance to and desire for further abuse.
While some physical tests such as body fat estimations and blood work can give a partial understanding, the true nutritional deficiencies are tough to accurately ascertain. Most rehab employed dieticians strive to develop a better picture of the patient's nutritional needs by working backwards and determining the diet as consumed while abusing. By evaluating past dietary intake, dieticians can determine what vitamins and essential minerals are most needed. Normally, in addition to balanced meals, dieticians will recommend the use of vitamin and mineral supplements to accelerate the nutritional recovery.
[Those with poor health histories] are encouraged to eat three very balanced and healthful meals daily. Since low blood sugars can induce lower energy levels and a depressed mood (with increased cravings as a result) most facilities will encourage the consumption of three balanced but smaller meals, with three or four additional snacks provided throughout the day.
Because sugar and caffeine can exacerbate mood and energy swings, refined sugars and caffeine will be minimized and healthier whole food and non stimulant substitutes provided.
In addition to a restoration of optimal levels of vitamins and minerals, some histories of abuse may have diminished the production of certain neurotransmitters (tryptophan, tyrosine) and protein rich foods heavy in the needed precursors may be offered to those with particular need.
Because many addicts enter rehab with damaged gastro intestinal systems, less able to process foods and often with accompanying tissue damage as a result, nutrient rich and easily digestible foods are offered as the quickest way to begin to reverse the damage of abuse, and begin to repair the ability to efficiently process food (ChooseHelp).
Poor nutrition habits can be a behavioral health issue, because nutrition and diet affect how you feel, look, think and act. A bad diet results in lower core strength, slower problem solving ability and muscle response time, and less alertness. Poor nutrition creates many other negative health effects as well.
Obesity
According to a National Center of Health Statistics 2003 survey, about 65.2 percent of American adults are overweight or obese as a result of poor nutrition. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more. Being overweight puts people at risk for developing a host of disorders and conditions, some of them life-threatening.
Hypertension
The National Institutes of Health reports that hypertension is one of the possible outcomes of poor nutrition. Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is called the silent killer, because it frequently remains undetected and thus untreated until damage to the body has been done. Eating too much junk food, fried food, salt, sugar, dairy products, caffeine and refined food can cause hypertension.
High Cholesterol and Heart Disease
Poor nutrition can lead to high cholesterol, which is a primary contributor to heart disease. High fat diets are common in the United States and Canada. The National Institutes of Health reports that more than 500,000 people in the United States die each year due to heart disease, which can be caused by a high fat diet. High cholesterol foods contain a large amount of saturated fat. Examples include ice cream, eggs, cheese, butter and beef.
Diabetes
Diabetes also can be linked to poor nutrition. Some forms of the disease can result from consuming a sugar- and fat-laden diet, leading to overweight. According to the National Institute of Health, about 8 percent of the American population has diabetes.
Stroke
A stroke that is caused by plaque that builds up in a blood vessel, then breaks free as a clot that travels to your brain and creates a blockage can be linked to poor nutrition. Strokes damage the brain and impair functioning, sometimes leading to death. Foods high in salt, fat and cholesterol increase your risk for stroke.
Gout
According to the National Institutes of Health, poor nutrition can lead to gout. With gout, uric acid buildup results in the formation of crystals in your joints. The painful swelling associated with gout can lead to permanent joint damage. A diet that is high in fat or cholesterol can cause gout. Some seafood--sardines, mussels, oysters and scallops--as well as red meat, poultry, pork, butter, whole milk, ice cream and cheese can increase the amount of uric acid in your body, causing gout.
Cancer
According to the National Institutes of Health, several types of cancer, including bladder, colon and breast cancers, may be partially caused by poor dietary habits. Limit your intake of foods that contains refined sugars, nitrates and hydrogenated oils, including hot dogs, processed meats, bacon, doughnuts and french fries (Livestrong).
[Disclaimer] This video comes from an alternative source, and I must admit that I winced at the sight of using a video from a group called UFO TV Studios. But I did watch the video before posting, and the information is consistent with other research and reputable information about the growing food crisis. So I'm going to use it for the purposes of discussion. I will be careful about the usage of the word conspiracy, because as Noam Chomsky states in his documentary, I don't think there are a bunch of people sitting around in a board room somewhere plotting world domination. But it is evident that some jerk stumbled upon a loophole to get around anti-trust regulations and is exploiting the heck out of it while the rest of us pay for it.
You'll see why I made the decision to post this vid if you take a look at the Noam Chomsky documentary that I've posted below. The primary reason I've posted this is to illustrate Chomsky's point about control and media coverage to pose the question, why aren't these issues being addressed by the mainstream media? There's almost no mention of it, unless someone like Tina Fey or Jon Stewart slips it into a snippet of their writing and commentary. And issues like food production, peak oil, and the economics of poverty are certainly not made as accessible to the black community. Even for those who read, unless you have some sort of idea of what you should be investigated, most of the issues that African Americans are recruited to participate in are not made accessible to those who would benefit from this information most. Why is that? Take a look at the video below for a bit. It's fairly long, but it raises some very interesting and legitimate perspectives from MIT professor Noam Chomsky.
Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent
This documentary takes a look at Noam Chomsky's theory that the media is used to control the masses and keep them in a state of ignorance and apathy, in order to control those who would be otherwise undermine the system with their dissidence for fear of uprooting the societal norms that keep "the system" functioning. According to Chomsky, the media is used by those who set the agenda on what types of issues are advocated in the news to indoctrinate the 20% of Americans who are privileged and educated enough to get a higher education so that they can be controlled to support issues from which governments and the corporations who run them can continue to make profits. Chomsky also argues that because the remaining 80% of the "ignorant masses" are controlled and kept distracted with mindless propaganda, that those who fail to educate ourselves on what the issues are as guilty of the human rights abuses that happen around the world and in our back yard as those who commit the atrocities themselves. Check out this documentary and let me know what you think.
Is Chomsky right?
Or are there benefits to some of the institutions and industries that Chomsky puts under attack?
In reference to his comment that sports is used as a distraction to keep the workers ignorant and distracted, do you think this is entirely true? Could the fixation in American culture on drug use, relationship problems, fashion, crime, celebrity scandals, reality tv, entertainment vixens and the entertainment industry be included in this assumption?
I once saw in a play on BET where this lady owned a clothing store and one of the characters in her shop argued that the fashion industry marketed baggy pants to black men because they knew that they would buy into the culture and it would help to exclude black men from high level jobs. The idea was that those who don't go to interviews or maintain 'proper dress code' in certain organizations couldn't be trusted to hold higher level positions because they KNEW what was expected of them and yet still CHOSE to disobey the rules. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've definitely been more aware of the pattern. I was looking for more information about the play, but it's been such a long time I saw it, I can't seem to find it. But I did find a blog post written by a woman named Racine, which seemed to accurately sum up some of the questions and stereotypes I've had posed to me regarding black fashion.
I watched the parade on the fourth of July and I could not help but notice the fashion on display by young black men and boys. Nearly all the black boys and young men wore t-shirts that extended nearly to their knees. A smaller percentage wore pants so loose that they had to use one hand to keep their pants from falling to their ankles.
Now I am no expert on fashion, but it is my understanding that this kind of dress has its origins in prison-wear. If so, then the vast majority of young black males in attendance at Racine's parade were identifying with and glorifying ( wittingly or otherwise) prison culture and criminality.
Of course I wonder whether these fashion decisions will have adverse consequences. I can't imagine that they wouldn't.
I own a small business and I have a few employees. Because of the nature of my business, I must place a high level of trust in my employees. As such, it would be foolish of me to hire anyone who chooses to glorify criminals and criminality. Why take the chance when I could choose someone from a culture that does not glorify crime?
The real victims are the young black boys and men who reject prison culture. They would face unfair obstacles because they come from a subculture that glorifies crime and criminality. An employer, lacking information on the potential employee, may well wonder whether the young black man identifies with criminals. My guess is that it would be illegal to ask a prospective employee whether he wears baggy pants and long T-shirts or whether he glorifies criminals, so the question will go unasked and the young black man will not get the job. The blame in this case rests not with a racist employer but with a subculture that glorifies criminality (Racine).
I'm always surprised to discover the number of people who are aware of the history, and like the food they eat continue to participate in the aspects of the culture that appear to have the most destructive consequences. As African Americans, do we continue to engage in these behaviors because of some higher conviction that we have simply failed to communicate to the other "ignorant masses" or we simply playing to the systematic suppression of our true worth by communicating the projections that we are ignorant, are easily controlled and just don't care to rise above our circumstances? I think one of the primary things that concerned me, as one of the only [actually I think I am the only] sustainability minor in the Sustainability and Environmental Studies program, was why there wasn't more participation in communities of people of color and the answer that I received was that African Americans simply weren't interested in being participants.
As ignorant as people are of how beneficial learning how to sustainably provide for one's own needs, it seems that people who didn't want to struggle anymore would be lining up to learn more about what actions they can take, on a community level and in their personal lives to eliminate some of the external factors that have been holding them back for so many years. The system tells frequently tells us what we must and cannot do. But for those who are constantly torn between having to choose between assimilation into American identity and preserving the aspects of mainstream urban culture that are considered to be fun, but puts the African American community under scrutiny, I wonder if the illusion we uphold that makes us think that we must choose between the two ends of the spectrum is, in itself, a form of indoctrination. But it seems as if this form of mental anguish and confusion is not something that we can entirely blame the media for perpetuating. Some of the greatest criticisms that I have heard in my own life, regarding choosing a path of ethics and identity separate from both the idealized perception of what it means to be a good African American has come from other African Americans.
I once went to a beauty salon where the shop keeper was working on a woman who was absolutely disgusted that she had spent money on her son's college tuition at a school where he started off in the pre-law program and ended up graduating in Agro-forestry. Her complaint was, "I didn't send him all the way to school to go $40,000 into debt so that he could become a darn farmer. What the heck has he been doing up there?" --[of course the expletives have been edited for academic purposes].
At the time I was 14. I had no clue what agro-forestry was. I wish I had. I just assumed he'd probably been up at school learning how to grow weed in his parents basement or something. Turns out, he had entered a field that is becoming crucial in the development of alternative food production and the development of perma-culture techniques. John Nzira a permaculturist from Zimbabwe wrote an easy to follow Permaculture Training Manual "for individuals and communities wanting to ensure sustainable food security and better health."
John Nzira is an African permaculture pioneer and is well-known and awarded internationally for his work. He inspires us all to take responsibility for developing sustainable livelihoods and increased self-sufficiency. (As food prices rise, it makes sense to invest time in gardens that will save money and make us healthier!)
FROM THE BOOK: “Permaculture encourages us to think more holistically by considering all the participants and resources in an environment and the way they relate to each other and learning to spend time imagining the consequences of our actions on the future of a particular environment or community. Permaculture does all this without the use of too many external resources. Instead, it tries to use affordable technology and seed, organic fertilizers and natural pesticides. It also promotes food consumption close to the source to cut on energy costs associated with storage and long distance transport and the loss of nutritional quality.”
FROM THE CONTENTS PAGE: Permaculture principles and designing. Planning your garden, and planning for dietary needs. Trees and shrubs, vegetables and crops, herbs and medicinal plants, small livestock. Soil in your garden and steps for improvement. Mixing growing plants. Water sources, irrigation and conservation. Increasing plants for your garden. Manage pests, diseases and weeds.Harvesting crops. Seeds collection and storage.Recipes and food preparation (Ukuvuna.org).
ISBN 978-0-9802550-6-5 To Find out more about Nzira's book, click here.
an ecological, holistic and sustainable design system and philosophy for human living spaces. It is a viable method for finding sustainable solutions to modern problems. It has been successfully used around the world to maximize food production, regenerate springs, cool homes without air conditioning, revive deserts, transform lives, reorganize towns and neighborhoods, reduce pollution, and much else. The essence of permaculture is summed up by 3 ethical principles:
Care of the Earth Care of the People Share the Surplus
Permaculture designers are often asked what permaculture is about and why it is important. Since our design curriculum to achieve basic understanding is 90 hours long, this is by no means an easy subject to explain in a few words. The term permaculture was coined by Australian Bill Mollison to refer to a nature-inspired design philosophy for creating permanent cultures by assuring their prerequisite— permanent, that is sustainable, agriculture. Mollison was concerned decades ago about the unsustainable nature of our fossil fuel economy. An as a forester, he was impressed with the stability and productivity of mature forests. He believed that humans could profitably copy many of the ideas we get from observing nature and applying them in gardens, towns, and structures we create.
But an etymology—permanent culture--is by no means a definition. Broadly, permaculture is an effort to reduce labor needed and energy consumed in all aspects of human endeavor so that scarce resources are used to their max and waste is absolutely minimized. One concomitant of the effort to reduce waste and energy use is the effort to produce as much food as possible as close to where one lives as is practical. But wherever people directly or indirectly use a lot of energy, you will find useful insights from permaculture.
The perma-cultural method borrows heavily from a very accurate understanding of ecology, the efficiencies nature creates, and an effort to understand all technologies ancient and modern that might help (Urban).
To read more about the origins of permaculture click here.
There have been other movements, such as the sustainability and permaculture movements, that have been made to try and revolutionize how we think of ourselves as members of American Society as well as the contributions that we make to our community. They are run by those that we scrutinize for not being members of our community and yet; these are the very groups of people that we tend to isolate and alienate from teaching us the skills that we can use to develop our own autonomy and sense of freedom because we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the history of events we have not learned to fully investigate and understand.
Many of these people are members of small local communities who invest their identity upon their ability to bring a sense of worth and added value to what they can collectively provide to meet the community's needs. By teaching concepts such as community resilience, cooperative learning and vocational re-skilling they are able to teach those within their communities the resources they need to educate those within the community who do not have access to uncontaminated food, a marketable set of vocational skills, community business ethics, etc. how to provide for the basic needs of the community through actions that can be made on a household scale.
This article written by Chris Carlsson from the website: Shareable Cities, which shares many methods of community building that African Americans may not be aware of, discusses the dynamics of what a shared community actually DOES look like, in contrast to the way that many urban spaces have currently been cultivated to create isolation and seperation from one another... something we should be familiar with --projected through the African Diaspora.
Can you tell me what's missing from this picture? But more importantly, can you tell me why?
Cities are shared spaces. That’s why we gather, in part, to share basic infrastructure, to socialize, to satisfy our human instinct to congregate, to make culture together. The call for a Shareable City simultaneously inspires us to imagine a transformed urban culture but also to notice the invisible ways we already share life all the time. Perhaps you’ve “borrowed” that proverbial “cup of sugar” from your neighbor? Helped an elder cross a street? Stopped to help a lost traveler get their bearings?
In fact, we cooperate automatically all day long, and a great deal of that invisible mutual aid takes the form of sharing information. Our social connections are often solidified through the sharing of food and drink. Sharing just comes naturally.
To pose the question, “What is a Shareable City?” implies that something’s been lost along the way. As cities and the lives within them have modernized, we’ve become more atomized and individualized. Concomitantly the remaining social wealth held in common—schools, libraries, parks— are unrelentingly pressured towards privatization. We’ve lived through a sustained period of history in which the pendulum has swung away from sharing and towards selling. Service providers have replaced extended families, fast food joints the dining room table.
And yet the Shareable City is resilient because sharers abound, and every act of sharing is an affirmative act of transformation. Instead of looking at the world in terms of what it owes her, the city sharer is excited to provide, to nurture, to enrich city life in general. Friends who share kitchen appliances, or teach each other to fix a sewing machine, or a bicycle, or even a car, are expanding a web of practical and pleasurable connections. These acts build familiarity and trust, two crucial ingredients for the deeper changes to come.
I live in San Francisco. Back in January several dozen neighbors along a 4-block stretch of Harrison Street—near where I live on Folsom—banded together under the name Mission Roots to dig up sidewalks and plant drought-tolerant plants. Taken individually, plants on a sidewalk don’t seem terribly significant. But when so many people did it together, they not only were able to garner resources from the City and local businesses, but they also held what seemed like a modern-day barn-raising, with folks helping each other, getting to know neighbors, and starting to erode that strange anonymity that characterizes urban life.
While their weekend-long de-paving will leave a lasting legacy for generations to come, their name could only be read ironically, in light of the fact that nearly all of the participants were relatively recent arrivals, mostly white or Asian, and mostly homeowners.
Going back at least half a century, the Mission neighborhood has been a predominantly Latino, working-class district (even earlier it was mostly Irish and Italian with some Germans, but very much an industrial working class neighborhood). In this neighborhood, the people with the deepest roots are the gangsters on the corners selling drugs, who are often third- or fourth-generation San Franciscans. One of the great challenges to the Shareable City is how we begin to connect across the class, age, and race barriers that divide us. We live in a neighborhood with multiple overlapping populations who often don’t speak to one another, and quite often don’t even see one another.
The problem goes deeper, having to do with issues of private property, displacement, and gentrification. The gentrification process—the more-wealthy buying up homes and displacing the less-wealthy—has had a devastating effect on the social and cultural fabric of San Francisco, especially in the Mission.
Gentrification pits people against each other in a game of domination: homeowners confront renters, ethnic groups and social classes scramble for advantage, families face different pressures than single people. It’s a process that played out in cities across the United States as housing markets overheated, and inner city neighborhoods suddenly became chic once again.
With the ugly twins of foreclosures and unemployment both on the rise, displacement is more than ever a social issue, a force that breaks the ties that hold us together. Everyone needs a place to live, and I'm disinclined to blame individuals who have recently moved in for a system where we're all in it basically for ourselves. Now that we're here, and the neighborhood (and our city) is in flux, isn't it incumbent on all of us to reach out, to find a way to overcome a paradigm of scarcity and replace it with the kind of barn-raising, garden-planting sociability I saw in January?
This is where Shareable City comes in, an affirmative and assertive cultural effort to expand the realm of sharing, cooperation, mutual aid, and solidarity. This starts with such simple acts as sharing tomatoes from our gardens, or taking the time to help a friend fix a bicycle’s flat tire.
But it’s a deeper concept that implies a more profound social agenda too. Our efforts are directed towards repairing a social fabric that has been torn by decades of dog-eat-dog-ism, by the endless mantra that everything has to “pay for itself.” The small acts of everyday generosity, whether sharing food with the men waiting for work on a corner, or even just striking up a friendly conversation with people you don’t normally talk to, are the starting point for a new convivial urban life.
The Shareable City describes an emergent social movement in addition to describing common activities familiar to anyone and that have long made up the complex web of urban life. A Shareable City is a rebuke to a madly speeded-up world full of stupid work done badly. It is a repudiation of an isolated, stingy, fearful life. It is a generous embrace of abundance and trust, seeing the glass as endlessly refilling instead of ceaselessly draining.
A Shareable City is a project that expands before us. We have much to build on, to be sure. But as a concept it is like revolution, both a process and a direction, but never an end state. It’s something we do, and can do much better. And it’s not something we can do alone. Take an inventory of the many ways you’re sharing already and then imagine extending and expanding those activities. How much better can life be in a Shareable City? The sky’s the limit (Carlsson)!
Will Allen is one of the people helping to lead not a mere ‘food movement,’ but something much larger: an agrarian reformation. the way. He is in the company of thousands of other Millennial Agrarians, a class of citizens on the rise (McFadden).
Below I've posted a youtube video about a marketing plan for the Milwaukee organization, Growing Power, which was started by former basketball player Will Allen. Allen was able to make a significant impact in the urban community of Milwaukee by setting up a space to teach urban farming and permaculture techniques in order to bring back safe and affordable food to those who could not previously access it.
While Allen was no Magic Johnson or Lebron James; he doesn't have his own line of sneakers. Allen seems to have found a way to leave a very lasting and valuable impact upon increasing the social and economic resilience of his local community. Through his urban gardening and educational program Growing Power, Allen has been able to transform his local community by sharing his easily acquired knowledge and a small three acre plot of land to help boost the economic development and resilience of his local community. For his efforts, Allen is widely respected by educators, progressives and activists who hope to learn how to transform their own communities, and the lessons that he teaches have been used to build and improve local food production facilities across the nation --and increase food security efforts around the world. And my guess is, most of you have probably never even heard of him even though he is the one African American probably most deserving of receiving an Image Award. You can learn more about Will Allen's efforts through other videos posted on youtube as well as checking out his documentary called Fresh which is not available in movie theaters.
Are you using your gifts well? What kind of efforts and skills could develop to help you make your own lifestyle more sustainable or increase the economic resilience of YOUR community? Don't know the answer to that question?
Check out this report on Building Sustainable Communities online (PDF format). Don't have the computer capabilities to read in PDF, a text version is also available for you to read.
Are you Worth your salt or are you passing the buck?
Mathew 5:13 says, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."
When it comes to your health and your future, "are YOU worth YOUR salt or are you simply passing the buck?" ~Walter Isbill
According to the CDC, 13% of African Americans suffer from poor health. The 3 leading causes of death among African Americans is heart attack, cancer, and stroke; all of which could be reduced by maintaining a proper diet and getting exercise. Unfortunately, although 18% of African Americans do not have health insurance, they are at the highest risk in the United States of contracting a health related illness. So how do we revitalize our community to take better care of their health and future? Perhaps some of this information will your nourish your mind with steps that YOU can make to improve your health and the welfare of your community.
What You Should Know About The Factors That Affect Your Health
I was once attending a Spoken Word event at this beautiful little neo-soul lounge down in East Atlanta Village. There was an insightful artist by the name of Mikuak Rai who was hosting the event sponsored by The Movement, a community of artists and activists. I had gone there that evening because I'd been told by a respected friend that the Monday Night poetry nights at Cenci, the name of the restaurant, were like a divine revelation and truth be told, I was not misinformed. I listened to young black children from Atlanta's "Roots to Fruits" program share their poems about how proud they were to be sure of who they are, and celebrate with their elders the joy of embracing their African Heritage. I listened to a Nigerian artist named Yetunde, [translation: The Mother has returned] deliver poetry so sweet and stirring that it brought me to tears to hear her speak of what real, deep, love is.
Then I watched in terror and awe as a young woman, less sure as I was, of what that was deliver a poem about wanting to find love. In her poem she talked about the man she would one day marry. It began in the standard spoken word format, beautiful words but always making me question whether what she wanted was realistic; Until I heard the line.... "The man that I will marry, will not always want to know if I love him, but will be more concerned about whether or not I love myself...." What a powerful idea to have resonating within to shake a person up to their very core.
Her words made me really think not just about the kind of love I want to have from other people, but also of the way that I give it. Do my thoughts and actions reflect how I represent myself, those I love, my community? I looked around the room. It was such a small, tight-knit group of people, but they were close and dedicated. I felt touched and a little saddened that there were so few people who inspired me in the way that they had, the only people who cared enough to savor life and do what was necessary to change the little bit they could in such a big and isolating world.
Mikuak must have been feeling something similar because as the audience warmly applauded this woman's performance, he smiled, looked around the room and grew a tad solemn. "This is beautiful yall," he began. He reminded the people in the room how fortunate they were to be able to have something like that to tap into. It was a movement that this small group and few others had put together.... had created. But they loved what they did. It was their sanctuary from the monotony of the outside world and they were stronger and much more energized about being a part of their lives because they had something they could come back to; as if it were the healthiest, vibrant part of themselves.
"These are some crazy times," he told those who had gathered there. "If you look at the news about the war, gas prices, violence, oppression and so many other things, you can tell that we're in the times of Revelations. No one has to even look at the prophecy to tell you that." I considered what he'd just said and thought about my own circumstances; living in poverty with an abusive family member while I tried to scrape enough tuition money to leave the city and go back to school. I could feel my forehead wrinkle up as I tried not to think about it and tried to focus my attention on the other people around the room.
Some looked about as troubled as I did. Others looked very hopeful. I even think I remember hearing a couple of Amens. Mikuak paused and then gave a kind and hopeful smile. "But we're not here for that," he said with his voice a little subdued. "We're not here to dwell on the the things that other people are out doing in the world. Anybody can believe and let themselves get discouraged by that. We're here not because of what was written in the Book of Revelations. I'm here," Mikuak shouted as he pointed out to the people watching and listening intently. "...because I believe that there's a book written after the Book of Revelation called the Book of Restoration!!!"
I was dumbfounded. "And right now," he continued. "While the rest of the world is falling into darkness, is falling into sleep, we are HERE. We are alive and we are getting ready, because the world needs us now more than ever... and we don't have to wait. We are the future. And we can begin, each and every one of us, to begin the process of healing and restoration right NOW!"
It was the single most inspiring moment of my entire life because I believed him, and he made me feel as if I could believe in myself. That was the day that I really began to really take interest in my role as an activist, not because anybody told me that I was obligated to give back, or because I felt like I had to. But I knew that he had just defined a pivotal moment in my life by revealing to me what my purpose was. I have been on that path ever since. There are days when I don't feel as if I'm ever going to get it. There are so many people who are just so lost to themselves and the importance of protecting and preserving the future. I've stopped trying to change them. But there are things that I know I can always reveal through myself, and I have been working on practical applications to learn how to give back to others that which I have been so blessed to receive.
But on the practical side of things I also realize that part of this experience lies in understanding the economics of how focusing on the things in our life that give us a sense of freedom, a sense of purpose and teach us to be our healthiest selves benefits a thousand times over. Rather than letting others dictate that for us, it is something that we have to define these things for ourselves, and this often takes education, a healthy lifestyle and finding balance so that we can be our best selves and empower those who look to others for inspiration.
There are often avenues we overlook because we are so reliant upon the fulfilling our own desires that we allow the system to oppresses others and become slaves to the pattern of thinking that blinds us to the fact that we are completely capable of providing a sustainable future for ourselves. Whether it's the clothes and food we buy, the education we receive, or the love we hope to receive from people, we miss out on a chance to boost ourselves spiritually and economically because we fail to understand the impact and liberation that comes with learning to adopt a more sustainable and conscientious lifestyle.
The arts have always been a conduit that has allowed us to take ownership of our own work and expression and to revitalize the very parts of us within that long to be healed and restored. By incorporating our work and expressions into other practical applications of our lifestyles, we can find this same joy and freedom in the even the simplest facets of our lives in a way that is powerful and inspiring enough to show us how to transcend ourselves and circumstances through even the smallest measures.
Is the food that you're putting into your body nourishing for your health? Or are you indulging in habits and behaviors that are making you a slave?
A Few Tips to Strengthen Your Physical, Mental & Economic Health.
Learn to Take Care of Yourself (Running yourself down only leads to a weak immune system, impaired ability to function and a poor state of mental and physical health. Feeling stressed? First respond by eating something nutrious and getting rest in order to get yourself moving back in the right track toward being your healthiest self).
Monitor your Health (This may mean doctor visits, for others it may mean doing a little bit of research of your medical condition. Many illnesses are treatable my making modifications in ones diet by adding particular foods).
Listen to Your Body (If you learn how to take care of your body and how to listen to it, you can learn to detect any medical complications that arise even before the doctors do and in some cases use holistic treatments, cutting down costs for medical bills, reducing the risk of life threatening illnesses and reducing the number of times you feel like crap).
Eat to Live (Choose foods that are rich in nutrients for their health benefits and healing qualities instead of eating junk or choosing fad diets that deprive you of essential nutrients.)
Exercise (Inactivity is the leading reason why people have poor health. Excercise boosts your mood, makes you physically stronger, and strengthens you mind; so be healthy by being active).
Grow Your Own Food
Learn about holistic treatments and remedies (Many of these can be provided at a much lower cost, maintained without the harmful side effects and give you a marketable skill to help others within you community).
Cook at Home (Save some money)
Set Up a Community Market (By encouraging community gardening and establishing local markets, you boost economic development, diversify the selection of affordable food made available and add civic pride and economic value and strength to your local community)
Learn to Cook International Foods (There are many people around the world who live on less than we do who have learned how to take staples such as rice, soy and whole grains and turn them into delicious meals for a fraction of what you're paying at the drive thru. Besides, it's also a great skill to have to impress the opposite sex).
Pre-prepare Meals for days you know you won't have time to cook (By learning how to cook low cost meals that can be prepared in bulk, you save time, money and your health for a fraction of what you pay in a restaurant or the store)
Use Herbs (Herbs can be used to treat and prevent illness, which can be cheaper than medications if grown at home)
Use Cooperatives
Buy in bulk (Bulk items sold in cooperatives reduce costs and make products accessible to others for a much cheaper price)
Savor Your History: But Don't Become Enslaved by It
African Americans have a rich history that should be honored by learning more about the cultural origins of the things that we love to celebrate [i.e. food, music, culture]. But we must also remember that every day we are leaving our own legacy. The choices that we make every moment can always be used as an opportunity to change the past.
You're NOT a SLAVE Are You? So then why do you continue to EAT like one?!!!
African Americans have a rich culture, rich history and a rich diet. To learn more about the origins of soul food feel free to click here.
For what it was, soul food has served us well, keeping us sustained physically and mentally nourished for generations. But these days, the kinds of foods that we eat no longer complement our lifestyle. We have gone from a rigorous industrial physical lifestyle to one that is more sedentary which is the main cause of the effects of our poor quality diet, mental illness and physical disease. It's time to take our bodies back and the only way we can do that is by strengthening our minds with healthy nourishing foods, safer preparation methods and the wisdom of our ancestors that has preserved generation upon generation of strong and brilliant African men, women and children.
Healthy diets improve the learning capacity of children and the productivity of workers (Weinberger, 2004). ln contrast, micronutrient-deficient diets lead to reduced mental and physical development, poor performance in school, loss of productivity in the workplace, and the likelihood of poverty in future generations (Haddad et al., 2002). 
