Black People and Obesity                                       

African-Americans and Social Factors
Most black people are familiar with the phrase DWB – Driving While Black. There is a new phrase for us: that uses the same letters: Dying While Black.

At almost every income level, African-Americans are sicker than whites and dying at a significantly higher rate. Black men live on average 6 years less than white men. Black men have shorter live spans than men in Chile, Barbados, Bahamas or Jamaica. Black women live on average years 5 less than white women. Black women have shorter live spans than women in Barbados, Panama, Bosnia and the Bahamas. Infant mortality rates are 2 times higher for blacks. Some racist commented that African Americans should be grateful for being in the United States, yet, African-Americans have more low-birth weight infants than women in Rwanda, Ghana and Uganda.

Social factors more than any other type of factors fuels the inequality of health status between Blacks and Whites in the United States. These social factors include: wealth/income, education, physical environment, healthcare, housing employment, stress and racism/discrimination. In fact, racism is so dominant a factor, that middle class blacks have poorer health than some less well-off whites due to the stress of living in a racist discriminatory society.

Chris Rock, the black comedian, once said: “Once I became successful, I asked a homeless white man if he wanted to be me --rich and black. The white person said: “No thanks, I think I’ve got a good thing going here (being white).”

Of course, using racism as an excuse only creates a vicious cycle of apathy and self-victimization. There are too many examples of blacks who have overcome the challenges and barriers despite the odds of growing up poor in an economically-drained community. I believe these challenges can make you or break you. What’s that saying? “Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”

Author's Note: "Luckily for us, we had strong parents who didn’t accept failure. My father told us: “You have 2 choices – to be a victim or a victor – it’s up to you. But, since you’re livin’ rent-free under my roof, you only have one choice – you will go to school and get A’s and B’s – you will be victors in this society, even if it kills you.”"

Many blacks experience some form of passive racism when they visit the doctor or the hospital. It’s not that doctors and nurses are bad people. In fact, they are good people who helped to save the life of this book’s author. In fact, the author wrote a letter to the personnel department of the hospital thanking the doctors and especially one of the nurses for saving his life.

However, during his visit to the endocrinologist, the endocrinologist assumed that the author didn’t understand anything about diabetes and blood glucose testing, and so he talked down to the author. When the author tried to show the endocrinologist the analysis he had done with his glucose data, the doctor pooh-poohed him, and told him that he didn’t have the necessary knowledge to reduce his insulin shots. Three months later, the author had reduced his insulin shots from 4 a day to 1 a day, and then eventually to no shots. But, instead of being happy for the author, the doctor was angry. Why? It wasn’t racism – it had more to do with money – the fact that the doctor wouldn’t be able to make any more money pushing his drugs onto the author.

When the author was growing up, he received a lot of support from various white people including teachers and other professionals. As a result, the author believes that although racism exists, you can overcome it via hard work and intelligence. In fact, his father told him to accept the fact that although racism exists, he would not allow his son to use it as an excuse for not getting A’s and B’s in school. His father told him: “Son, you will just have to work harder, smarter and longer than the other kids. That’s just the way it is.” The author’s father worked 3 jobs and his mother 2 jobs, so his father and mother had a strong work ethic that they passed down to their children.

Ironically, that strong work ethic from his father helped the author deal with his diabetes, and realize that he had to work harder, smarter and longer if he wanted to defeat this disease – and, he did, thanks to his wise father.

Note: Black people (African-Americans) used to be pretty healthy 50-60 years ago. And, further back -- during slavery times -- black people were even healthier. The primary reason why black people weren’t living that long had more to do with the hangings, beatings, and overt racism – not how they ate or exercised. But, today that has changed – we’re not getting hanged as much, but we’re still dying just as fast.

It's sad how much time and money that some young black men spend on rims for their cars, an asset that steadily decreases in value.  But, they hesitate to spend $20 for a health book or an extra few dollars for healthier food.  Black women spend $200 on a weave but not on a personal trainer or nutritionist. They spend hours in a beauty salons and nail spas, but will not take a 20 minute walk on their lunch break.  They care about their appearance, but the caring stops just above the shoulders. Why do you care what’s put on your hair and your fingernails but not what’s put in your body??

Impact of Culture
One of the keys to understanding why black people are so fat requires us to understand their ancestry and culture.

Culture is defined as the thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups.

Because health care is a cultural construct, arising from beliefs about the nature of disease and the human body, cultural issues are actually central in the delivery of health services treatment and preventive interventions. By understanding, valuing, and incorporating the cultural differences of America's diverse population and examining one's own health-related values and beliefs, health care organizations, practitioners, and others can support a health care system that responds appropriately to, and directly serves the unique needs of populations whose cultures may be different from the prevailing culture.

African American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of African ethnic groups to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African American culture is rooted in the historical experience of the African American people, including the Middle Passage, and thus the culture retains a distinct identity while at the same time it is enormously influential to American culture as a whole.

African American culture is rooted in Africa and is a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values, and beliefs survived and over time have modified or blended with European American culture. There are even some facets of African American culture that were accentuated by the slavery period. The result is a dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture, as well as the culture of the broader world.

The Legacy of African-American Cuisine
Popular southern foods, such as the vegetable okra (brought to New Orleans by African slaves), are often attributed to the importation of goods from Africa, or by way of Africa, the West Indies, and the slave trade. Okra, which is the principal ingredient in the popular Creole stew referred to as gumbo, is believed to have spiritual and healthful properties. Rice and seafood (along with sausage or chicken), and filé (a sassafras powder inspired by the Choctaw Indians) are also key ingredients in gumbo. Other common foods that are rooted in African-American culture include black-eyed peas, benne seeds (sesame), eggplant, sorghum (a grain that produces sweet syrup and different types of flour), watermelon, and peanuts.

Though Southern food is typically known as "soul food" many African Americans contend that soul food consists of African-American recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation, just like other African-American rituals. The legacy of African and West Indian culture is imbued in many of the recipes and food traditions that remain popular today. The staple foods of African Americans, such as rice, have remained largely unchanged since the first Africans and West Indians set foot in the New World, and the Southern United States, where the slave population was most dense, has developed a cooking culture that remains true to the African-American tradition.

This cooking is aptly named southern cooking, the food is caled soul food. Over the years, many have interpreted the term soul food based on current social issues facing the African-American population, such as the civil rights movement. Many civil rights advocates believe that using this word perpetuates a negative connection between African Americans and slavery. However, as Doris Witt notes in her book Black Hunger (1999), the "soul" of the food refers loosely to the food's origins in Africa.

In his 1962 essay "Soul Food," Amiri Baraka makes a clear distinction between southern cooking and soul food. To Baraka, soul food includes chitterlings (pronounced chitlins), pork chops, fried porgies, potlikker, turnips, watermelon, black-eyed peas, grits, hoppin' John, hushpuppies, okra, and pancakes. Today, many of these foods are limited among African Americans to holidays and special occasions. Southern food, on the other hand, includes only fried chicken, sweet potato pie, collard greens, and barbecue, according to Baraka. The idea of what soul food is seems to differ greatly among African Americans.

General Dietary Influences
In 1992 it was reported that there is little difference between the type of foods eaten by whites and African Americans. There have, however, been large changes in the overall quality of the diet of African Americans since the 1960s – which has fueled the increase in cancer rates and the diabetes epidemic in African-Americans. In the 1950s and 1960s, in the South, many African-American families or a close relative had a farm, so they grew their own food. In the North, many African-American families (like the author's) had a garden, where they grew some of their own food -- not because it was healthy, but because it was a lot less expensive than buying food from the grocery store.

Author's Note: "I remember the time my brothers and I spent working my father's garden; and, the time we spent on our uncle's farm in Wheatland. I still have dirt under my nails from digging holes to plant my father's tomato plants. Growing up we didn't really appreciate this food from the garden or the farm. We didn't realize that we were eating food that was a lot healthier than the food in the grocery store!"

Unfortunately, many of the black children of today as well as other children have no connection to a farm or a garden of  fresh home-grown vegetables and fruits -- the very foods that prevent obesity and diabetes!

In 1965, African Americans were more than twice as likely as whites to eat a diet that met the recommended guidelines for fat, fiber, and fruit and vegetable intakes. By 1996, however, 28 percent of African Americans were reported to have a poor-quality diet, compared to 16 percent of whites, and 14 percent of other racial groups.

Today, the diet of African Americans is particularly poor for children two to ten years old, for older adults, and for those from a low socioeconomic background. Of all racial groups, African Americans have the most difficulty in eating diets that are low in fat and high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. This represents an immense change in diet quality. Some explanations for this include: (1) the greater market availability of packaged and processed foods; (2) the high cost of fresh fruit, vegetables, and lean cuts of meat; (3) the common practice of frying food and using fats in cooking; and (4) lack of knowledge about real nutrition.

Exploitation of African-Americans by Western Medicine
It is important that African-Americans with Type 2 diabetes or any disease driven by a nutrient deficiency realize that they are subject to multiple socio-cultural, medical and environmental influences on their eating and other health-related behaviors. This is true for all ethnic cultures in the U.S.

Just as important, African-Americans and other cultures have been falsely led by the medical profession to believe that their Type 2 diabetes is hereditary. This is far from the truth. This is dangerous thinking because some African-Americans “give up” because they believe that they can’t defeat a disease that’s “in their blood”.

In addition, despite the fact that African-Americans were mistreated by the medical profession (e.g. Tuskegee syphilis experiment, 1932-1972), a large majority of African-Americans have a strong (false) belief in the medical profession and their drugs.  Not to make excuses, but many African-Americans do not have the “luxury” to make better choices about their food, when they have to overcome the reality that they are not welcomed by a country that became rich, benefiting from the centuries of free labor via slavery. Also, many African-Americans are more concerned about getting a job, keeping a job, overcoming their environment, and not getting shot in their neighborhood. Eating healthy is just not seen as a major priority.

The exploitation of African-Americans in medical education and research included the use of black bodies in anatomical dissection, the medical care of slaves, the surgical experiments on slaves, and government-sponsored radiation experiments after World War II using unwitting African-Americans as guinea pigs. And, don’t forget about the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which about 600 black men with syphilis were left untreated by the U.S. Public Health Service in an effort to study the pathology of the disease.

However, it would be remiss on my part if I did not point out that the ethical problems in medical research pertain not to race alone but to the power relations of scientific medicine. For centuries the urban poor have been exploited as "teaching material" in the great hospitals of every Western country. In America since the later 19th century, similar stories could be told about immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and others who habituated the charity wards of US teaching hospitals. Medical research has always tended to take advantage of the powerless and voiceless, whoever they might be.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when racism in the United States was at its most intense, numerous episodes of flagrant maltreatment occurred. After World War II, as racism began to ebb, the worst of these abuses ended. However, African-Americans continued to be over-represented in clinical trials relative to their percentage of the general population. This largely reflected the fact that academic medical centers drew most of their “clinical material” from their immediate geographic surroundings -- areas that were often heavily black in demographic composition.

Today, many African-Americans do not have a good relationship with Western Medicine for various reasons including insufficient healthcare, language barriers, and negative perceptions. During the 1900s-1960s, African-Americans did not have the types of jobs where the company paid for their healthcare. As a result, many African-Americans could not afford to go to the doctor, and relied upon their great grandmother or other older relative to provide herb mixtures and other concoctions. However, after the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, more African-Americans acquired jobs working in Corporate America. As a result, more African-Americans obtain healthcare insurance and now could afford to visit the doctor.

Ironically, this didn’t really help to improve the health of African-Americans. Instead, they relied upon the knowledge of the doctor and trusted the doctor, who “pushed” a lot of drugs onto the African-American families. During the next 30 years, African-Americans gradually became one of the top consumers of OTC and prescription drugs. Coincidentally, during that same time frame, the overall health of African-Americans deteriorated and the number of deaths associated with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes increased dramatically.

During that same time, the medical industry worked hand-in-hand with the pharmaceutical companies to increase their revenue and profits tremendously, such that the pharmaceutical industry has become a trillion-dollar revenue-making industry.

Despite the terrible history that African-Americans have had with Western Medicine, most African-Americans believe that drugs really work and believe that the drugs give them the freedom to eat poorly – without realizing that the drugs actually contribute to their poor health. This misperception is reinforced by the doctor who plays the “blame game” and implies that your disease is due to your family genes, your diet, your lifestyle, and your age. Although this is true to some degree, for the most part, these are excuses that transfer the blame from the doctor to the patient. There’s nothing wrong with that – as long as the patient realizes that they are responsible for their health, not their doctor.

Now, doctors are good people – they do the best they can, but the reality is that doctors are trained to push the drugs, and we as patients gladly accept the drugs. Western Medicine is a business, not a service, which is designed to generate massive profits – for the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies – at the expense of the patient’s health. Unfortunately, this is not going to change – until the patient gets smarter and realizes that he must reject the drugs and find alternative solutions.

All of us need to become more aware of how we end up taking more and more drugs, and not improving our health.

• When a person doesn’t feel well, he goes to the drugstore to get an OTC drug to relieve the discomfort.
• When that stops working, he goes to the doctor, who prescribes a drug for the problem.
• When that stops working, the doctor increases the dosage of the prescribed drug, or the doctor prescribes a stronger drug, a new drug, or a combination of drugs.
• When that doesn’t work or stops working, the doctor recommends some extreme drug therapy or surgery.

At no point during this “journey to illness” did anyone question the overuse of ineffective drugs. Why? Because doctors are trained to push the drugs and offer them as the solution. And, we. as the patients, take the drugs and don’t push back for a better solution.

Regardless of your race or culture, we can all agree that healthcare costs are rising, and will continue to rise because Western Medicine is “a big business”, not a service for the American public. And, the sooner the public realizes this, the sooner they’ll realize that the state of their health should be in their control, not the control of the healthcare system.

The “Isolation” of African-Americans in America
There is a large percentage of African-Americans who don't have a computer and access to the Internet. Unfortunately, this leads to "knowledge isolation" and a lack of understanding about how diabetes and other diseases really work. Because of this isolation, many African-Americans suffer unnecessarily, and are unaware of Amazon.com, YouTube, BlackInAmerica.com, WebMD,  and other Internet platforms that can expand their knowledge in nutrition and alternative medicine , and understand the dangers of Western medicine and its dependence on drugs.

We attribute this to several factors. Of course, our findings do not apply to all African-Americans, and these reasons are not associated with just African-Americans. Other ethnic cultures suffer similar isolation issues.

1. Many African-Americans are nutrient-deficient, making them more susceptible to diabetes, high blood pressure, and some cancers. For example, African-Americans do not eat lean protein foods such as nuts, seed, and wild salmon, and are therefore deficient in Omega-3 EFAs. African-Americans eat more nutrient-poor fast foods than other ethnic groups, consuming excess animal fat and refined carbohydrates. Also, African-Americans do not get enough exposure to the sun, and consequently are Vitamin D deficient.

2. Some African-Americans will spend money for cosmetics, hair products and going to the beauty salon, but they are not as willing to spend money for their health, e.g. health book, health coaching appointments, health plan, health seminar, diabetes workshop.

3. Some African-Americans will spend money for the doctors and their drugs, but not for health-related products or services.

4. Some African-Americans are more concerned (and rightly so) about having enough money to buy any kind of food, let alone "healthy" food.

5. Some African-Americans are struggling just to stay alive --eating healthy is not a priority. "Eating healthy" is seen as a luxury, not something that is mandatory.

6. African-Americans struggle with bigger problems than "health" -- not realizing that good Health and Wealth are connected.

7. African-Americans have to deal with various social "isms" and overcome other struggles that majority Caucasian-Americans don't have to deal with on a daily basis, e.g. racism, elitism.

8. Some African-Americans do not believe that they are worthy and intelligent. due to racism and other "isms" in our society. They are unaware of their  rich heritage and their powerful history. Did you know that some of the original mathematicians and engineers were of African heritage?

9. More than 97% of African-American homes have a TV, but less than 15% own a computer, creating an "isolation" phenomena.

10. Some African-Americans have a very strong belief in their doctors and their drugs -- despite the abuse of African-Americans by the medical profession in the 1900s and 1940s, and the biases of the healthcare system.

11. Some African-Americans don't have the disposable income to buy health-related and nutrition-based books.

12. Some African-Americans no longer leverage the power of the black church -- as they did in the past. For example, it was the black church that educated blacks when it was against the law for blacks to read or go to school.

13. Some African-American churches and pastors ignore the sections of the Bible that discuss nutrition. Ironically, many of the church leaders (as well as the congregation) struggle with health issues, many of which are directly connected to poor eating habits.

14. Some African-Americans tend to have a strong faith and belief in God, but when they get sick, they along with their pastors and church leaders choose the man-made drugs over God's foods!

15. African-American homogeneous groups (i.e. black fraternities, sororities, clubs, churches) tend to sponsor mostly entertainment-type events such as concerts, shows, parties, etc. and demonstrate very little interest in health-related events.

16. African-Americans are unaware of the manipulation by the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, Kidney Foundation, and other health organizations to use free health fairs to infiltrate black churches starting in the mid-1980s. Many of these free health fairs were sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies, who paid these organizations to infiltrate the black churches with a "trojan horse". As a result, a larger percentage of African-Americans take medications today.

17. African-Americans are unaware of how to enjoy their favorite ethnic foods. Most dietitians have told African-Americans that they can't eat fried chicken, bacon, grits, etc. This has led African-Americans to ignore good eating habits because most of these diet programs do not embrace ethnic foods. However, during the past several years since Mr. McCulley gave his talk at Aenon Baptist Church, he has done the research to figure out how African-Americans can enjoy their favorite foods (by transforming them into healthier foods!).

Note: Some of these statements are controversial and may upset some people, but the bottom line is that the CDC and NIH health statistics show that African-Americans (and other etnic groups) are dying faster than they should be dying. In the end, it will be their responsibility to change the way the eat and live -- if they want their children to have a higher quality of life and to live longer than their parents.

The Solution:  An Action Plan for African Americans
There are 11 key areas that African-Americans (and other ethnic groups) need to address to improve their overall health:
• Low Employment
• Lack of Education
• Poor Environment
• Lack of Healthcare Insurance
• Lack of Family Wealth
• Eating Habits
• Lifestyle
• Lack of Computers/Technology
• Religious Beliefs
• Marketing Scams/Targeting
• Racism/Prejudicial Perceptions


Note: Read this web page to understand why African-Americans remain poor.

For more specific information about possible solutions to improve the health of African-Americans and other ethnic cultures, get the ebook PDF titled "Why Black People Are Droppin' Like Flies" from our online store.

This 90-page ebook PDF explains the key reasons behind the dramatic health decline of African-Americans in the U.S, and "why black people are droppin' like flies". It also explains the history and social/economic/racial impacts that affect the health of many African-Africans, and how to overcome these "isms".

Key sections include: black culture, profile of African-Americans, food and culture, disease statistics for black men and black women, history of "soul foods", why blacks reject conventional diets, the "isolation" of blacks, top challenges, how to stop the madness, and action plans for blacks to improve their health and the health of their family, and future generations -- by overcoming the financial, social, and economic barriers.

Other sections include nutrition and disease-related discussions about Hispanic-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Indians, and diabetes in Africa.