By: Terrika Mitchell
In 1997, the longtime black family tradition of eating soul food was mainstreamed in the film “Soul Food”, written and directed by George Tillman Jr. The film exhibited a Sunday dinner table crowded with dishes intended for the spirit. Meals included collard greens, fried chicken, cornbread, chitterlings and okra. “Hog and Hominy”, a past-to-present evaluation of soul food, discusses the origins of the African-American custom. “African-American cuisine–what African-Americans in the 1960s would later call ‘soul food’– developed from a mixing of the cooking traditions of West Africans, Western Europeans and Amerindians,” writes author Frederick Douglass Opie. Opie says grits and cornbread, along with preparation techniques like using cooking oils and spices, have West African roots. “Rich seasoning, using herbs, heavy amounts of pepper and salt, meat and cooking oil or lard has roots in West Africa, where both the Igbo and Mande liberally cooked with palm oil,” Opie says. Today, an epidemic number of blacks suffer the consequences of the dietary practices of their African ancestors. The price seems to be paid through their health. Third-year Florida A&M University music education student Jennifer Theisen, 20, experiences firsthand a common threat among blacks.
“Diabetes runs in my family,” says Jennifer, a Pascagoula, Miss. native. “My grandmother, multiple cousins, and aunts and uncles have the disease.” “I have Type 2 diabetes.” Jennifer says. “I learned of my disease the second semester of my freshman year. My blood-sugar level was almost double the norm for a 19year-old female.” According to the American Diabetes Association Web site, with Type 2, or late-onset diabetes, “either your body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin.” Insulin is what the body’s beta cells release to help it use or store blood glucose from food. Type 1 diabetes, according to the Web site, is characterized by the body’s inability to produce insulin. Jennifer controls her diabetes through taking insulin shots, checking her blood sugar, and diligently sticking to a healthier diet. Doctors recommend blood sugar levels be between 70mg100mg, while anything higher is considered early or established diabetes. “Every day I take an insulin shot. And after every meal, I have to check my sugar. It can be a pain to do, but it is just something that has become a part of my everyday routine,” she says. “I try to avoid fast foods and stick to home-cooked meals; rice, salads, and all-baked meats are a part of my diet.” Jennifer says her healthy eating habits began with her family and that the consequences of straying from a healthy diet are hard-hitting.
“Considering that more than 65 percent of my family has diabetes, we don’t tend to have as much food that would cause problems with our sugar intake. But, on occasion, we tend to treat ourselves to cookies, cakes, and pies,” Jennifer says. “If my sugar intake gets to be excessive, my body begins to tremble and I can feel myself getting dizzy.” Theisen and her family live in the Southeast region of the United States– where slaves were transported during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Opie’s studies indicate that there is a correlation between partaking in “soul food” and the slave mentality. He unearths the relationship between the two. “They [slaves] gorged themselves on the parts of the hog that the master’s family refused to eat,” Opie says, “chitlins (entrails), trotters (feet), the snout and jowls, the neck of the hog, hog maw and crackling or pork rinds.” While the ritual of eating soul food has seemingly remained strong throughout history, there is some debate over its longevity in newer generations of families and individuals. With a multitude of fast food restaurants and value menus accessible to FAMU’s campus, indulging in foods that are high in cholesterol has become a convenience for students in the area. Sandra Orr, a freshman business administration student from Jacksonville, lives on campus and says her diet has changed from baked chicken and vegetables since coming to school. “Normal [meals] now include junk food, mainly burgers, fries and pizza,” says Sandra, 18. “I’ve gained like six pounds since
[August]. I’m going to start exercising one day, and I’ll probably change my diet too, but since [fast food is] more of a convenience now, I’d rather just exercise to balance [my eating].” In 2007, the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse reported that 23.5 million, or 10.7 percent, of all Americans, 20 years or older, have diabetes. It also reported that 5.7 million people went undiagnosed. Nutritionists suggest that a healthy diet, paired with physical activity in young adults could prevent diabetes. “Just like you put studying in your day, we like to see students put exercising and eating well in their day as well,” says Brian Ringpfiel, the Nutrition Educator at the FAMU Recreation Center. “What I see a lot of is fried food and fast food, and not quite as much fresh food.” He suggests fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, low-fat and fatfree dairy as fresh foods for students to incorporate into their daily meals. Ringpfiel says that many students are under the misconception that his advice for meal plans will lead to a complete revamp of their normal diet. He says some of those unhealthier foods can still be included. “We can fit some of those things in a meal plan, we just want to have it in smaller portions and not consume it as often,” he notes. “The amounts depend on how much you exercise and, of course, how many calories you burn in a day.” Ringpfiel says anything can be incorporated into an individual’s meal plan, but
foods that surpass a set calorie intake should be avoided. He warns that excess calories “may come back to haunt you.” “Typically, it’s going to be in excess weight,” he says, “because students, with as much studying and sitting in class as they’re doing, may not be getting as much exercise. The more you exercise, the more calories you are allowed [to eat] up to a certain point.” Michelle Moore, certified diabetes educator, comments on the relationship between high-cholesterol foods and diseases related to the consumption of such foods. She mentions that weight factors heavily into the equation. “It’s a much clearer connection amongst our weight and the development of diabetes,” says Moore, who is also a registered dietitian. “So when we’re eating a diet over years that puts excess weight on us, that’s where the diabetes is much more frequent.” She explains that excess weight and obesity, from fried, processed, and high sodium foods, leads to the body’s resistance to insulin. Moore says that the rate of Type 2 diabetes has skyrocketed in the youth population, whereas it used to be diagnosed much later in life. She explains that part of early on-set of diabetes is due to lack of exercise and obesity, while predisposition to diabetes also takes a toll. “The risk [of getting diabetes] is higher if you have family members with it,” Moore says, “but that doesn’t mean you’re not at risk if you don’t have family members with the disease.” She says that many people in their
younger years tend to have the “It can’t happen to me” philosophy. Moore likens the philosophy to that of smoking cigarettes where, “it’s not hurting me now, so it’s hard to imagine that it will one day.” As for older generations of African-Americans, she says they often mistake the possibility of getting diabetes as a promise, instead of taking any preventative measures. “What I hear from my patients makes me believe that a lot of African-Americans believe that diabetes is something that is just going to happen because it happens to so many people,” Moore says. “For a lot of people I think the mindset isn’t if I get diabetes, it’s when [I get diabetes].” Not everyone looks to diabetes as inevitable though. Healthier eating habits have mainstreamed over the years, almost as much as the tradition of eating soul food. Jennifer has devoted herself to living a full and healthy life. She’s a member of FAMU’s Marching 100, Gamma Sigma Sigma Service Sorority and Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. She says her family is her biggest support system when it comes to eating healthy, but her sorority sisters and fellow band members also motivate her to live healthier. “I do get fatigued quicker than most people in the band,” Jennifer says. “But all in all, I am a regular student with a few more responsibilities than others.”