WEESeeYou Presents: African American Alternative Foods & Cooking Series

     Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and as our families are preparing to celebrate and give thanks, WEESeeYou wants to give our community the gift of sustenance via information, tips, and recipes to uplift your spirits and nurture your Soul.  This is the first in a series of alternative foods and cooking.  I think it is important to give a brief  history of how and where African American food( Soul Food) and cooking got its origins.

 Soul Food is a term used for an ethnic cuisine, food traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans of the Southern United States. Many of the various dishes and ingredients included in “soul food” are also regional meals and comprise a part of other Southern US cooking, as well. The style of cooking originated during American slavery. African slaves were given only the “leftover” and “undesirable” cuts of meat from their masters (while the white slave owners got the meatiest cuts of ham, roasts, etc.).            

 We also had only vegetables grown for ourselves. After slavery, many, being poor, could afford only off-cuts of meat, along with offal. Farming, hunting and fishing provided fresh vegetables, fish and wild game, such as possum, rabbit, squirrel and sometimes waterfowl. Africans living in America at the time (and since) more than made do with the food choices we had to work with. Read more here.    

We are well aware the slave-owners did not have the slaves best interest at heart, and even today, we cannot rely on folks to grow our food and prepare meals that will nurture and sustain us.  Earlier this month, WEESeeYou’s Webb posted a thread titled, ”You Cannot Eat Everybody’s Cooking.”  It’s worth a read for the comments alone.

Whether we buy into the origin of how Soul food came about, Black folks have the ability to “make a way out of of no way.”  A good portion of our food was seasoned with salt to give it flavor and make it palatable.  We wanted to make our food distinctly unique from what the slave masters had intended for us.  Over centuries and decades, our cooking habits have also evolved.  A great deal of Southern cooking entails frying meats and boiling vegetables.  Processed foods like white rice, potatoes, sugar, salt, and flour have become household staples.

African Americans have the highest rate of heart failure and the likely cause is hypertennsion (high blood pressure.)  While environmental factors like  job stress, racism, and heredity play a role, dietary habits can greatly reduce or eliminate not only hypertension and obesity but a host of other chronic diseases.

Making safe food choices and changes need not be expensive and anxiety ridden.  If you’re like me, anytime someone tells me that I can’t have, do, or be, “X”  marks the spot.  I like making smooth transitions. It’s less stressful.  You can start this Thanksgiving  holiday by treating you and your family to nutritious, wholesome and calorie conscious foods.

Here are several points to consider in making food and cooking transitions:

1.  Begin to embrace the fact that Food is medicine.  We literally become what we eat.

2.  Re-think your shopping habits.  This includes learning how to read food labels.  *tip*  The first ingredient on the label indicates the largest percentage of said ingredient.  For example, a box of elbow macaroni ingredients include:  Durum Semolina (wheat flour), Niacin, and Ferrous Sulfate (Iron).  So wheat flour is the predominate ingredient. 

 A workable goal is to aim for less processed foods.  If you must buy processed food, aim for food that (a) has the fewest ingredients, and (b) make sure the primary ingredient is listed first or at least on the first line of the package.  I refuse to buy any food with more than a few lines of the listed ingredients on the package and especially if I cannot identify said ingredient.  The food is usually loaded with preservatives and additives.  Processed foods are convenient, they are not fresh, and they are not necessarily nutritious. 

Start making a list and learn the lay-out of the grocery store.  Most processed foods are in the isle section.  Make every effort  to shop outside the isles. You’ll notice the fresh whole foods are always positioned on the outside of the isle.  Eat before you go shopping; you’ll less likely to over-buy foods that you didn’t intend to buy.  The foods we snack on are usually processed and are loaded with sugar and salt.  High sugar content=  high in calories= significant risk of developing obesity.   Read more here.

3.  Begin buying more fresh vegetables and fruit and “can” the canned.  Canned fruits are loaded with sugar, and canned veggies are loaded with salt.  Salt is used as a preservative in most processed foods, and some of us have the tendency to add additional salt/sodium during and post cooking.  

4.  Begin substituting white sugar.  Most processed foods have a high sugar content, and it is cleverly disguised.  Dextrose, Sucrose, and Fructose are  all fancy words for processed sugar.  You can start transitioning from sugar by using honey, maple syrup, and stevia.  * Note foods high in white processed sugar does not cause  Diabetes, but foods high in calories does, and sugar is high in calories.

 5.  Begin substituting regular table salt.  Try sea salt, Celtic sea salt(mineral rich salt), and herbal seasonings like spike. * Diets high in sodium can exacerbate high blood pressure.  Everyone is not salt-sensitive, however, if you have high blood pressure, chances are you are salt-sensitive.  Obviously, salt intake cannot be the only factor contributing to America’s high blood pressure.

FYI, Salt is a mineral, and there could be other mineral deficiencies that can contribute to high blood pressure, These minerals include:  Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium. It is all about balance.  Address your concerns with the doctor.

6.  Begin exploring the benefits and joy of  eating organic meats.  Most Co-ops carry organic meats, these meats do NOT contain hormones or antibiotics and are usually grain fed.  Most animal meat comes from animals who were fed the crushed up body parts of other animals.  The meat is grind, mixed, and packaged to conceal the differences. 

Also, most chickens are raised cooped up in tight quarters with little or no natural air or sunlight.  When the animals get sick, the plant workers pump them full of antibiotics. Some meat plants house pigs and cows in much the same way.  Often these animals have little space to move and live day to day rolling around in their own excrement.  Some of the animals are pumped full of hormones to speed up their growth for early slaughter.  I think you get the picture here.

Look for labels on store bought chickens and eggs that read “FREE RANGE.”  It’s simple, free range means the chickens were raised outdoors and allowed to roam free.  For fish, try looking for fish that is wild and not farm raised.  To learn why, read here.

7.  Begin substituting white rice, potatoes, and flour products with legumes, beans, and whole grains.  Sorry folks, but most WHITE foods do not have any nutritional value.  These foods convert to sugar in the body very quickly and are high in calories.  Try decreasing the amount and frequency of these foods and begin substituting with:  Millet, Corn, Quinoa, Wheat-Berries, Bulgar, Barley, Brown Rice, Basmati Rice, Lentils, and Oats.

Alternative Cooking Methods

The practice of submerging broccoli, onions, carrots, string beans, and other garden produce in water developed in a culture in which animal food had substantially replaces grains and vegetables as the primary fair.

The way we cook also contributes to our energy and balance. Vegetables are best when boiled in 1/2 to one inch pan of water.  Many vegetables are done after two to three minutes, others five to ten. This preserves natural energy and texture, brightens their color and brings out the natural flavor and sweetness.

Explore the joy in roasting and broiling meats vs. frying.  More to come on alternative cooking methods.

Cooking with LOVE

Today’s families rarely share the same home-made food or eat at the same table.  Twenty first century cooking and eating includes consuming life-sustaining whole food and eating with family and friends who share a common bond.

Would you like to share a favorite recipe with fellow bloggers?  Please feel free to include a recipe in your comments.  The challenge is to incorporate some or all of the tips listed in this thread, or share an alternate food choice that has worked for you.  We’re all students and teachers.  In a future post, we will explore and experiment with the relationship between different foods and our bodies.  Are you game?

REAL Soul food is food prepared with a calm, peaceful mind.  As you go about preparing your Thanksgiving meal, give it all your attention and love.  Your family and friends will surely benefit from your love and care.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!