The Bad |
The Good |
The 1960’s brought the term “soul” to music and food alike during the Black Power Movement (Soul Food Junkies). Black Nationalists stressed collective uprising of black people, with self-improvement and “veneration of the primordial African culture” according to Dr. Baker (“Black Americans, 1963-1973”). In attempts to celebrate and re-claim aspects of their African culture, African-Americans romanticized soul food. They were consuming less variety of fresh ingredients, such as vegetables, compared to their ancestors. They continued to eat foods they were coming to realize contained unhealthy fats and lots of them. But soul food alone could not be entirely to blame for the 50 to 90% higher incidence of pancreatic cancer in African-Americans compared to any other racial group in the United States according to Johns Hopkins Medicine (Soul Food Junkies). Fast food chains began to emerge. People spent less time in the kitchen and more time seeking out prepared foods. Byron Hurt in the PBS documentary, Soul Food Junkies, stated, “It was far too simple to blame soul food for our father’s death. My pops also ate lots of fast food that could be found everywhere in the black community…[with a] diet that consists of unhealthy soul food and highly processed foods, the combination could be deadly,” (Soul Food Junkies). Poor eating habits ultimately led to his father’s pancreatic cancer, causing Hurt to question traditions associated with soul food.
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Techniques and entire meals transcended through generations to make soul food part of the black culture. The amount of love put into making and serving the food would not soon change, however people began to speak out against a “soul food” diet. Others encouraged modification. Two people that spoke out include the Black Panthers and Elijah Muhammad. According to Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, the Black Panthers not only instructed people to change their diets, but organized programs to initiate the cause. Breakfast and other community-oriented food programs provided and encouraged healthier lifestyles (Soul Food Junkies). Elijah Muhammad approached healthy eating in a different way. He published the book, How to Eat and Live that offered a new model for “black living and black wellness,” as stated by Dr. Hill (Soul Food Junkies). Part of his encouraged practice included the elimination of pork, a previous staple in soul food.
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