Diabetes mellitus is a serious disease that affects people from all walks of life, but African Americans develop the disease at a disproportionate rate in comparison to other ethnic groups. Dietary changes are needed prevent further metabolic complications and increasing health-care issues such as limb amputations, loss of kidney function and increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Eating Habits
African Americans, especially southern African Americans, eat what is callled a soul food diet, which includes dietary habits that have been passed down from sub-Sahara Africa, Sahelean and slavery that are part of the culture today. The African diet was primarily vegetarian and included turnip, dandelion, mustard and collard greens, yams, cabbage, cornbread and yeast-based breads, beans flavored with pork, rice, grits, macaroni and served with fried and battered meats. During the Middle Passage, the traditional African diet changed to include sauces made from rancid meats and served over beans and rice in an effort to fill the bellies of slaves, according to Lynn Olver, editor for the Food Timeline, which developed an American timeline of foods introduced by various groups settling in the United States.
Establishing New Habits
Changing dietary habits takes energy and also consideration to ethnic eating habits. Many educators, who are not of African American descent may not be able to effectively education African Americans on selecting foods that aren't traditionally part of the diet. Practitioners must find ways to modify soul food recipes to maintain flavor while decreasing sodium, fat and cholesterol content of meals, according to registered dietitian and diabetes educator Karmeen Kulkami.
Finances
African Americans have a higher rate of poverty and limited access to healthier food items that can lower the rate of developing type 2 diabetes. National poverty rates in 2009 for African Americans was 25.8 percent compared to 9.4 percent for non-Hispanic whites, according to the National Poverty Center. Availability of money greatly affects making the best choices for food.
Addition of Soy
Soy is considered a health food to help lower disease rates or the development of certain chronic diseases. African Americans may be unfamilar with soy-based foods because of education, culture or limited monies to spend on "new" and unfamilar foods. According to Judson Allen with the University of Illnois at Urbana-Champaign, soy is a low glycemic food that can help lower glucose levels and decrease the occurrence of diabetes. Educators could use soul food recipes and modify them by including soy as the protein source. This could improve African Americans' taste for foods that aren't traditional to the soul food diet, but also create a better awareness of limiting fat, sugar and sodium to live a healthier lifestyle to manage blood glucose levels.
Meal Planning
Emphasizing vegetables while limiting meat and starch portions is critical in promoting weight loss and changing dietary habits to lower glucose levels. Teaching African Americans to use the plate method is an easy way of teaching portion control. The plate method divides a plate into three sections for vegetables, starch/grains and meat. According to J Anderson with Colorado State University, focusing half of your plate with vegetables increases your fiber intake, but also limits your caloric intake. The other two sections of the plate consists of one quarter each for limited servings of starch and meat. This helps to decrease calories from high calorie starches and to decrease saturated fat intakes from large protein servings.
