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Neither soul food or slave food made you fat.

unecessarily

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I really like this article it tackles the misconceptions around soul food.

Usually, when I don’t know where to begin with a post, it winds up being ridiculously long and winding. Let’s see if I can avoid that, today… because again, I surely don’t know where to begin.

A couple of years ago, John McWhorter wrote the most ridiculous thing I’d read in a long time for The Root, attempting to refute both basic Capitalism and common sense by implying that “food deserts don’t exist and, therefore, are not the reason why Blacks in America are fat” because, basically, “Blacks don’t want healthy food, y’know, since they’ve always eaten fried chicken and fritos since they’ve been free in this country.”

And ever since I wrote my post in response to that, this has been on my mind. Where does this idea that all soul food has ever consisted of was fried food, cheap food and garbage? Why is it so easy for us to assume that obesity is “so prevalent” (I use those quotation marks for a reason) in the Black community because of something inherently wrong with Black culinary culture?

Why is it so easy for us to believe that the flaw was, immediately, us and not, say, food manufacturing in this country? It was us – our fault, the fault of our culture – for why we are, collectively, fat. Nothing else is even worth considering?

McWhorter says, “Culture, too, creates a palate – and to point that out is not to find ‘fault.’” No, it’s not to “find fault,” it is to “lay responsibility at the foot of culture,” or to “place blame” in said culture’s lap. To try to head me off at the pass by saying that blaming culture is “not to find fault” doesn’t make it so.
“Salt and grease were what they had,” “Fried food, such as fried chicken, was also easy to transport for Blacks traveling in the days of Jim Crow, [because, since you knew that no restaurant would be willing to accept your little colored money,]“… statements like these both astounded and intrigued me.


When I think back to my almost 100 year old great grandmother and her garden in Selma, Alabama, I don’t remember all-fried everything. I don’t remember “salt” and “grease.” I don’t remember “fried chicken,” and am pretty sure she’s never cooked it for me. I got that from my Mother, arguably 50 years younger than Aunt Sissy.


Then, I listen to what my peers are saying around me. Such denigration for what they’ve identified as stereotypical “soul food,” a culture rich in flavor, skill and – yes – nutrition. After reading approximately 9 books on African, Caribbean and diasporic African foodways as I healed from an annoying leg injury last year, I can straight up and down say that most of these people have no freaking idea what they’re talking about.
How do you go from gumbo, crab cakes, deviled eggs, and roasted pork (possum?) to “soul food wasn’t nothin’ but salt and grease?” How do you go from a plant-based diet (yes, our ancestors, despite the drop ins of pork and other meats, ate a plant-based diet) rich in fruits and vegetables, light on meat (because, hey hey, they couldn’t afford it), and supplemented with unprocessed grain as a filler, to having some man in an Ivory Tower tell you that the reason your people don’t eat healthy food is because they have a hereditary slave palate that determines whether or not they are healthy eaters?


Let’s get something clear. Black Americans aren’t the only ones overweight in this country. Black Americans bought into the same swindle that the rest of the country bought into and were hurt even more because, while the rest of the country had enough money to pull itself out of the rabbit hole of processed food and obesity, Black Americans by and large did not. Two thirds of Black America may be fat, but guess what? Two thirds of America is fat, too.
Soul food is not to blame for our nutritional woes. A willingness to blame soul food for Black America’s current ailments resulted in complaints about “vegetables being boiled to death” replacing what used to be excitement for receiving a plate of braised string beans with corn bread. Why corn bread? Simple: the corn bread was used to sop up the “pot liquor” from the string beans. (“Pot liquor” is what’s left in the pot after vegetables have been treated. Studies – studies, mind you, that were done long after our ancestors were doing this – show that vegetables that are boiled actually have the vitamins and minerals boiled out of them, resulting in a vitamin-rich broth left in the pot after all the servings.


Hell, the corn bread of today isn’t even the corn bread of yesterday – is your corn meal organic? Your ancestors’ corn meal was. Is your corn meal from genetically modified, hyper-processed corn kernels? Your ancestors’ corn was not. Do you have a propensity for “sweet corn bread?” That’s neither a “North” nor a “South” thing – that’s a processed food thing. You can thank “Jiffy” for the popularity of sweet corn bread.


You can also thank processed food for the increase in saltiness in soul food, too. Sure, soul food always used cured pork, but it was used so sparingly (very rare was the occasion that a Black family had access to the “better” parts of the pig and, therefore, were reluctant to squander what they had access to by eating whole parts at a time.) that it would’ve never had the same effects it had today. (And, while there are studies out regarding hypertension in the early 1900s, there are far more mitigating factors in blood pressure than simply “salt” and “smoking.” Think “factory conditions,” for starters.)
You know what else you can thank processed food for? Your “fat” tooth. Fried chicken was fried, not deep fried nor triple battered. It also wasn’t fried in genetically modified oils, replete with omega-6 and considered to be deleterious to one’s health. We didn’t stick solely to the “fat parts” of the animal. Hog jowls, pig’s feet, sweet breads, pig intestines? All low in fat and incredibly high in protein. And before anyone brings up “macaroni and cheese” to me, let me make life easier on you: macaroni and cheese, though it is a soul food staple now, did not originate with African Americans.


Who is cooking soul food seven days a week, three times a day? No one, that’s who. For all of you people who consistently advocate for “cheat meals,” isn’t your “cheat meal” that Sunday dinner when Big Mama throws down for the whole family? Isn’t that Sunday dinner the only meal you’re eating that big throw down? And, furthermore, aren’t you eating Big Macs, Chicken McNuggets, Whoppers, Lean Cuisines and goodness knows what else during the week? The height of processed food? But it’s Big Mama’s “cheat meal” every Sunday that you want to blame. The rest of America isn’t sitting at Big Mama’s table, but they’re certainly in line at the drive thru… and they’re just as overweight as the rest of us. Mexicans that come to America and eat their traditional dishes using American ingredients? They’re gaining weight, too.

Neither our pies nor our cobblers had two crusts – again, processed food. (I am totally guilty of this.) Manufacturers were eager to sell us the idea of a two-crusted dessert because it’d require us to use up our butters and flours faster, thereby needing to purchase more at a faster rate. Our banana pudding wasn’t made up lazily of “nilla wafers.” It was pound cake, with arguably less sugar.

We didn’t use white sugar – couldn’t afford it – we used molasses, far easier on the blood sugar levels and still could be reduced to be made sweeter. The sugar we did use, was purified with ox blood, lime, egg whites and a blanket. Not dimethylhexachloroferodextrol. (I completely made that up, but damn if it doesn’t sound an awful lot like what’s in the food now.) Our rices were, by default, brown and wild – there was no hulling of rice grain, thereby making it “white,” until around 1902. Processed food, processed food, processed food.

The willingness of the Black community to assume that the reasons why we are experiencing unfortunate circumstances is because of something inherently wrong with ourselves and our culture, instead of acknowledging that those same unfortunate circumstances have befallen everyone in society… as cliche as it is to say “that’s self hate,” I don’t know what other way to put it.
I started the month off with the lead in from “The Problem With Processed Food” because, quite frankly, there is a lot of road to hoe, here. Just last week, I attended a seminar for personal trainers [insert innocent face here], and one of the only other Black women in attendance approached me and, after lengthy conversation, said “Man, it’s that soul food. It’s killing us.” All I could do is smile and say, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, we’ve got to do something.”
I just… I wanted to hug that woman. Hug her and tell her, our culture didn’t do this to us. The disparaties in income did this to us.

The availability of fresh produce, or lack thereof, did this to us. The trust we placed in food processing and manufacture did this to us. The same things that did this to the rest of our country, are the same things that did this to us, and it’s time that we stop pretending otherwise. Stop buying into a mentality that says Blacks are inherently bad and wrong,
and any problems that affect us specifically (regardless of whether or not they affect others) are our fault as Blacks and not as Americans or even as human beings. I’m over it, and I hope you are, too.


Excerpted from Neither Soul Food, Nor “Slave Food,” Made You Fat | A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss
 

Thighs

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the only difference is back then people did work that required physical work


but people now are just sitting for 8hours and then going home and sitting on the couch for another 4 hours while eating the food and gaining weight
 

EscapeHatch

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Soulfood gives you the sugah. You don't want to get that leg chopped off.
 

Elisa Maza

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Thank you! When I go to my grandma's we'd have "soul food" but we called it that because we were there picking, gathering, (killing lol), cleaning the food to be cooked! She even has the chickens :laugh:

Best food I ever had :starving:
 

FaCough

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Ah, I remember the first time I had real corn bread. My great grandma made it and I couldn't eat it because it wasn't jiffy.
 

Agent355

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Soul food isn't unhealthy. Modern day soul food is though. It's the chemicals they put in the food on top of being lazy that's making us fat. It's not a coincidence that it coincides with the obesity rate rising in this country. Folk wanna blame the food instead of looking at the real problem which is what they are putting in the food and laziness. Look at our snacks. The ingredients get changed when they are sold overseas because they are unhealthy and banned in other countries.
 

itgurl_29

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This woman is spot on! Soul food is actually quite healthy...when it's made from organic produce and natural meats. It's not the soul food that's killing us. It's the processed garbage we eat. It's the Doritos, not the collard greens! And when we go cook with real foods, it's the hormones in the meat and produce and the chemicals all over the fruits and vegetables that cause the problem. When you buy organic produce and grass fed meats, it's totally healthy. If black people actually went back to eating soul food, which is actually cooked whole foods, we'd be better off.
 

peacanpie

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thank you for sharing this OP. best thing Ive read all day :yes:
 

spoiledwater

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Soul Food Junkies, is a documentary from PBS exploring the relationship between black people, and cultural food.

Blaming, "soul food" for the obesity epidemic, and ignoring food deserts, and the abundance of fast food and processed foods is just an attempt to blame "blackness' for a systematic ruination of the countries food supply. Large multinational organizations are hell bent on making as much money as possible at the costs of all of our health.

Like someone mentioned, using whole foods, unprocessed grains, and organic fruits and vegetables and making, greens, sweet potatoes, and peas, can't hurt anyone, and when people grew these items from their own gardens, they were eating healthy.

Food is one of the building blocks of any culture. Allowing the Churchs/McDonalds of the world, to get a pass on how they have infiltrated food culture in the United States, and blaming "soul food", is a cop out.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtNLbbft4vw"]Soul Food Junkies - YouTube[/ame]
 

hocakesNC

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This is sooooooo true. I grew up in a small country town and we rarely ate out. My dad owned hogs, my mom grew her own garden (still does) and we ate "soul food" (I hate that term) everyday. I NEVER had weight problems until I moved away to college and discovered fast food :eyeroll:
 

SparklyGlitters

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Just want to scream & praise dance!!! YASSSS...My Mom is not African American but my Dad is & from the deep South) is however in both cultures:
Veggies and Greens of every kind were the biggest things on the plates
Beans gave you protein
Meat was occasional
Sweets were mostly fruit or homemade items that were rarely made and not huge portioned
Breakfast was the biggest meal of the day and most times was Eggs & grains.

It wasn't until I went to college that I fell into the standard USA junkie junk.
 

TheWoman

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Im Jamaican so I LOVE yard food...rice and peas, ackee and saltfish, hard food, curry goat stew chicken escovitch fish, callaloo.... and as I a child I don't remember a single meal being served without a whole heap of veg...most times the flavour comes from all the spices used so the level of salt is not inherent to the dish but a matter of personal preference.... I have never been fat :arrogant: like most people in my family we are all lean and solid.


Anyways, im not on this Hollywood idea of health and dieting they take a thing too damn far, and their idea of beauty is not appealing to me.
 

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