Why does it seem to me that the art of healthy eating and proper nutrition is a despised practice in the Black community?
I hear some of the dumbest statements from many Black people who are obviously unlearned but never the less perpetuate this gross ignorance onto the next generation who grow up absorbing this mentality.
“That health food stuff is nasty! I ain’t eating that shit! I need my Fried Pork and Chitterlings to stay big and healthy like I am!”
“My whole family is big boned and we ain’t never going to be small, so why should we starve ourselves when our great grandparents never did on the plantation?”
We as a people love to show off the unhealthy foods that we eat on Social Media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, but will we upload the pictures of us in the hospital sporting the twisted features of one who has suffered a stroke? Or will we relish uploading the tumors that were just cut out of us with the enthusiasm that we did when we were consuming that toxic food to end up in that unfortunate place.
Now understand, I am not saying that all illness is because of our bad eating habits because there are many who drop dead after eating properly for years while others exhibit perfect health and a long life after breaking all of the rules in the book of health! And I must also state that many illnesses are due to environmental factors that we can’t control as we don’t even know if we have the inner resistance to not have these factors take our health away.
But why are we so bonded to ignorance in our food choices because of the emotional attachment to the culinary traditions that have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be the reason for the highly probable self induced ailments of high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke?
While I’ve not always been super perfect in my preferred style of eating, I’ve never allowed it to get out of hand once I found myself getting dangerously close to that line of overindulgence.
I guess for me, after spending my total teenage years submitting to a spartan-like discipline that would have crushed the most focused of individuals from the ages of 13 to around 22 when I walked away from the sport of competitive bodybuilding, I wanted to see what the rage was when my peers got so passionate about consuming these life destroying substances.
Trust me, it was an entirely new world to me and I threw myself into it for a while head first and established some bad habits that has given me a real perspective on how so many of us get caught in the high processed fat, high sugar, highly salted and heavily fried low nutrition garbage that many consider real food.
First of all, you’ve got to understand that what most people consider food is not real food at all.
While it may begin as real food, it will be processed so much that the end result will end up being something that cannot be totally used by the human body and actually will be more of a stress to it than a source of life force and many simply just don’t understand this.
I recently read a posted graphic that contained a quote that said something to the effect that: “Everything that you eat either feeds disease or feeds healing/health.” This is an absolute statement with no middle ground and many just cannot see this.
Many of us just haven’t been taught about the basics of proper nutrition and often ignore the signs that out bodies give us to let us know where we stand as far as our health is concerned and how to correct it.
For example, our bodies are truly fine tuned high powered and very durable machines yet we haven’t a clue on how to maintain them except for what is taught to us to deal with any issues after the fact when something malfunctions with it.
We shouldn’t wait until we break down completely before we deal with an issue that has obviously been going on for a while but not observed because we were ignorant to the very loud danger signs.
We aren’t taught this stuff in our schools from young because there is too much money to be made in the greed driven medical field by the doctors from a bunch of sick people who are taught to patch up a problem as opposed to preventing it in the first place!
So do not ever feel that you are not in control of the physical aspect of your being simply because you may not know exactly how you’ve gotten to a place of ill health. You’ve got to know that the human body is very forgiving and that the feelings of being constantly fatigued and worn down from poor nutrition and a stressful lifestyle can definitely be reversed into making you the productive dynamo of a powerhouse that God designed your system to being.
The first thing that you are going to have to do is to know that good health is your right but you will also have to let go of a lot of the bad practices that brought you into a low vibration existence with the poor health that is surely to follow.
Certain practices MUST BE BANISHED IMMEDIATELY if you are to ever realize the bliss of great health and that ever elusive feeling of well being.
There IS NO COMPROMISE on this so if you can’t release the toxic activities from your life then you will never be able to embrace and absorb the life giving health cultivating activities any way whatsoever.
What might be the toxic practices that one must banish in order to begin walking the long road to cleansing and improved health?
Drugs
Alcohol
Fried Foods
Sugar in ALL processed forms
Any food that has been processed out of its original natural form.
Meat
Television, Internet & Radio unless viewing positive inspirational or educational programming
Indulgence in gossip and idle chatter
Slothfulness and not motivating physically to exercise
Not getting enough rest
Not living by a set of positive rules and not
No compromise in what God wants and doesn’t want.
Notice that while this article was supposed to be about proper nutrition, but understand that proper nutrition means nothing without the total attention to the complete being in the same manner of the traditional African Healers approached the good health practices.
The Eurocentric based thinking and approach in the medical field here is to address a PROBLEM after it has been born while the proper way that God desires it is to be proactive in building ones health through proper nutrition BEFORE any issues arise.
So here we are in the inner cities of America believing that life as it is can’t get any better because of the lie that we’ve internalized that we we dwell is so much more advanced than any other place in the world.
Yet we have more stresses, more nervous breakdowns, more mental – physical – spiritual ailments than at any other time in history as well as any other place on the entire planet.
But we never question why we are so off of the mark because we’ve embraced our dysfunctional lives as normalcy when this life has so much more to offer us if we only knew how to righteously extract it goodness.
How many times in the past did you think you were dead broke only to find that you unknowingly had a pocket full of money while you walked around hungry?
Well this is how you will feel when you discover that you’ve had access to all of the resources within your reach that would bring you to improved health because you will then be empowered to compare the dead feeling that you live with now to the feeling of boundless energy that’s guaranteed if you submit to the healthy practices.
But we’ve got to get past embracing the ignorance that keeps us in the bad eating habits that will keep us going to a doctor that will only poison us and bankrupt us with his high priced toxic poisons called medicine.
We should not be afraid to venture from under the cloud of ignorance and the deadly practice of habit in order to set forth a new rhythm that will swiftly and easily bring us into a healthy life and a new revitalized appreciation for the rare gift of life.
So to answer my own question which was posed in the title of this blog post, no, I don’t think that healthy eating practices are despised in the Black community per se’, but I do think that many of us just do not know any better.
I also feel that it is difficult to move away from the comfort zone of the every ready instant high caloric blasts of low nutritional highly seasoned culinary fares.
I mean, who wants to spend a ton of money at Whole Foods Market to then come home and prepare a meal when one can swiftly chase those ever increasing hunger pangs away with a quick trip through the McDonald’s drive through to spend only two dollars for two Big Macs and maybe another dollar for a sugary soft drink that will instantly jolt the nervous system for a few more hours of faux fuel?
We don’t do better because for many of us that’s all we know.
McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, Crystal’s, White Castle, various Pizza spots and numerous other big name fast food joints dot the inner city landscape and arrest the taste buds of our youth forever twisting their tongues in favor of this poison.
Understand that they are the first wing of attack on your health before the medical industry sinks its wicked claws into your precious body for its OWN profit!
So we have a monumental task at hand to conquer ahead of us as a people because not only do we have to defeat the enemy that we know so well in the field of life, but we also have to defeat that enemy that we can be to ourselves from within.
Let’s not forget the revolution at the dinner table that we must wage in order to be strong to ascend to our God given stations in life for our community and people.
We must learn to sharpen our swords with the knowledge of what is proper to put into our bodies because there will come a time when we will have to depend on the investment that we’ve made in ourselves.
Let us build our well being through healthy eating and not consider good clean food to be a four letter word!
Peace, Righteous Love & Revolution Always,
Your Brother,
LanceScurv
407.590.0755
