By: Jean Johnson for Reflux1Ray Charles loved his red beans and rice, not to mention a little Southern fried chicken to go with. But Ray took only a little and worked his calories off singing his heart out to America.
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Tips for healthy weight loss:
Set realistic goals
Focus on achieving good health rather than a certain weight or dress size
Keep a food diary
Remove unhealthy food from your cupboards
Stock up on healthy, nutritious snacks
Drink plenty of water
Start keeping track of your time spent exercising
Reward your weight loss milestones with non-food focused gifts or activities
To determine your body mass index, visit
The Centers for Disease Control.
To read more about healthy soul food cooking look for these books: “Slim Down Sister – The African American Woman’s Guide to Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss” and “The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes.”
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It hasn’t been so easy for black women according to a recent study. While rates of obesity in black and white women with high school educations were similar, disparities increased as education levels rose with blacks remaining heavier than their white counterparts. Tené T. Lewis, Ph.D. of Rush University Medical Center and her colleagues published their results in a recent issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
“We observed significant racial differences in the effects of education on weight for middle-aged women. At all levels of education, African-American women were equally heavy, while white women were thinner with increasing baseline educational attainment. These results are consistent with previous studies of young girls, adolescents and adult women. In this respect African-American women do not seem to benefit from education attainment in the same way that white women do.”
California cuisine. Soul food. Quite a divide separates those culinary approaches. And while Ray Charles donated $1 million to Dillard University in New Orleans to establish a chair in black cuisine and material culture, Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry most likely think twice before they tuck into a meal of fried catfish dredged in cornmeal, chitterlings, cornbread laced with bacon fat, candied yams, and black-eyed peas and collard greens, both of which are seasoned with ham hocks.
Indeed, the use of pork products to season food, not to mention hydrogenated vegetable oil, or shortening, for frying and making Southern biscuits and pies, puts soul food squarely in the company of Iowa farm dinners. While this kind of eating worked back in the days when everyone got up from the table and went back to the fields, in the easier physical pace of today’s world, it’s a recipe for excess pounds.
In the profession, researchers talk about excess weight in terms of the body mass index or BMI. BMIs of over 30 percent place people in the obese category, and what health educators would like to do is help the black female population lower their percentages.
“The lack of an observable benefit on BMI for educated African-American women is particularly alarming given their disproportionate high rates of obesity and obesity-related illnesses,” wrote the authors of the March 2005 study. “Because race-education patterns appear to be well established by midlife, prevention efforts aimed at reducing the prevalence of obesity in African-American women should begin in adolescence or early adulthood.”
The debate over obesity and overweight has shifted in the past 10 years. More than half of American adults are overweight, 25 percent of whom are classified as obese with BMIs over 30. Appearance aside, pundits say, it’s the medical fallout from packing around pounds that’s at issue.
High blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, circulation and heart problems are the dues many people pay for eating more fuel than they burn, and black females are paying in higher numbers than others. Ray Charles may have been able to enjoy his soul food, but those that aren’t burning off calories singing “You Don’t Know Me” might consider reaching for healthier food choices a little more often than the old cast iron skillet.
