Cookbook Corner Black Women's Health Imperative

The Season for Healthy "Soul Food" Cooking

Roniece Weaver and Fabiola Demps Gaines share a cookbook that gives soul food a healthy, diabetes-friendly make-over. Yes, you can make a tasteful, delicious and healthy holiday meal for your loved ones, using this cookbook and your creativity.

During the holidays, family and friends come together to celebrate love, laughter, life and the season of thanks and giving. For many Black families, make-you-wanna-shout soul-food dishes are an integral - and much anticipated - part of the festivities. These dishes, passed down though the generations, provide not only sustenance but also emotional nourishment. For many of us, soul food is indeed our soul's food, evoking fond memories of family and traditions. That's why Roniece Weaver and Fabiola Demps Gaines penned "The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes."

Since the soul food that many of us love so much is also contributing to the prevalence of disease, particularly diabetes, in the Black community, perhaps this year, you can start new traditions by making healthier holiday dishes, using this cookbook. But, before you balk at the prospect of Thanksgiving without Aunt Martha's mouthwatering collards (ham hocks included) or Christmas without Grandma's savory peach cobbler, know that healthy food need not mean tasteless food.

Modifying our cooking style is a great way to start dealing with diabetes in the African American community, said licensed dietitian Weaver, and it won't ruin holiday dinners.

The Truth about Diabetes
Diabetes or "sugar" affects the body's ability to turn sugar or glucose into energy. This process requires the hormone insulin. Insulin helps glucose or sugar - which is produced when a person digests food - enter the cells of the body. The cause-effect relationship of diabetes to Black women can be attributed to family history and lifestyle factors, such as overweight/obesity, physical inactivity and unhealthy nutritional practices. According to the American Obesity Association, 78 percent of Black women are overweight and 51 percent are obese. This trend supports the statistic of 1 in 4 Black women over the age of 55 having diabetes, nearly twice that of White women. In another study, "Racial and Socioeconomic Differences in the Weight-Loss Experiences of Obese Women" (American Journal of Public Health, 2005), Black women experience less social pressure about their weight, initiate dieting later in life and are significantly less likely to diet at each developmental milestone.

Eating Right for Mind, Body and Soul
For Coco Bright, who was diagnosed with diabetes 12 years ago, family history wasn't a factor in her developing the disease. The likely cause was her unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle, which led her to morbid obesity. Similar to many people who are diagnosed with diabetes, Bright initially found it difficult to accept her disease.

"I was in denial," said Bright, a grandmother of 10 and a radio personality from Atlanta. "I lost control of my life, and I had to learn the hard way that good health is not a destination, but a journey. Once I realized that, I was able to restore my life and health."

Bright eventually accepted her diagnosis and committed to exercising regularly and eating healthy foods. By 2003, she had lost 150 pounds. The lifestyle changes she made allow Bright to maintain her weight loss and to control her diabetes without medication.

Roniece Weaver, also a noted cookbook author, wants more African Americans to emulate Bright and take charge of their health. That's why she's on a mission to teach African Americans how to cook nutritious, balanced meals. One indication of the need for her work is that some people who've grown up on traditional soul food don't know how healthy food should taste.

"If your taste buds aren't acclimated to eating healthy food, you won't know how or what to eat for health," said Weaver. When co-writing "The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes," Weaver took into consideration the culinary expectations of typical friends and relatives who sit around holiday dinner tables. She loaded her cookbook with delicious, down-home-flavored dishes low in fat, sugar and sodium.

Exercise and Diabetes
Researchers suspect that a lack of exercise is another factor that contributes to the disproportionate rate of diabetes in African Americans. For example, a national health and nutrition survey in Diabetes Care Journal found that 50 percent of African American men and 67 percent of African American women participants reported little or no leisure-time physical activity in their lives.

"If we're going to win this battle, [regular] exercise must be thrown into the mix, along with a sensible eating plan," said Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO of the Black Women's Health Imperative. "Some diabetes cases may be prevented or even reversed by combining good eating habits, weight control strategies and regular exercise."

Hinton Hoytt suggests that families make physical activity a part of this year's holiday activities. After holiday meals, for example, get the whole family outdoors for a game of tag football instead of letting them vegetate on the couch, watching sports and napping.

"It's essential to combine healthy lifestyle changes with an awareness of our risk factors," said Hinton Hoytt. Getting regular check-ups from a medical practitioner is also important, she said.

The Next Generation
The latest scientific findings about how to control or prevent diabetes are good news for African American women and their families. The habits that lead to diabetes don't have to be passed on to the next generation.

According to Weaver, by changing our diets, adapting traditional recipes, and tweaking the ways we celebrate with food, we can unlock the grip that diabetes has on the African American community.

"We have to get our kids to see a vision of health for tomorrow. We must stop eating for today, the moment, the next second," said Weaver. "Food is a cultural thing, a bonding thing, a social thing. We have to find great excuses to gather without food."

According to Hinton Hoytt, learning to prepare healthier versions of the foods we love and grew up on can be an important component of developing a healthier lifestyle.

"With consistent and healthy lifestyle practices, Black women are not destined to have diabetes," said Hinton Hoytt. "The science is clear - losing 5 to 7 percent of your body weight reduces your risk of getting diabetes. The Imperative believes that Black women should gain self-knowledge in order to reduce diabetes risk and improve their health and well-being."