No white bread, No white rice, No white grains
What makes a healthy diet? "Not eating rice and junk food". After my supervisor led a workshop, I followed up with different teens. This was thier automatic answer. As a matter of fact, they began to be obnoxious: "no white bread, no white sugar, no white rice, no white potatoes if you're white, you are the devil. I had to laugh at that one. It sounded absurd, but that was the take away my supervisor left the class.
I am always critical of how well-meaning, "progressive," WEALTHIER folks, which are not brown and black, speak to our youth. (Were you wondering, no my supervisor is not from the Bronx, nor is she black.) As she spoke all I could hear is all the food your parents can afford is not healthy. There is no nutritional value in any of these things? I too thought if its white is it terrible, automatically? That's the metric? If it is that straight forward, why is it still being sold?
I choose to believe a healthy diet is a balanced diet. I believe I can have a balanced diet while eating white bread, white rice, white potatoes, and using white sugar. The cost of eating as we choose is already high, literally. I understand the figurative sense as in "we can't afford to continue to eat what we can afford" because of food related illness. Nonetheless, we already spend, an abnormal amount to keep our apartments warm, mold-free, rodent-free... some of us (51.6% according to DCP) spend an unusual amount on rent itself. So, I choose to believe, there is a way I can eat within my budget, within my culture and stay healthy.
There must be a way to educate ourselves within our own boundaries. I don't mind promoting eating quinoa, and I heard its indigenous to South America. I don't mind hyping up eating okra and yams, I hear it came from Africa through the slave trade. I don't mind even cutting out meat totally from my diet, my Rastafari brother's and sisters have too. All I ask is that this education is culturally responsive.
I am always critical of how well-meaning, "progressive," WEALTHIER folks, which are not brown and black, speak to our youth. (Were you wondering, no my supervisor is not from the Bronx, nor is she black.) As she spoke all I could hear is all the food your parents can afford is not healthy. There is no nutritional value in any of these things? I too thought if its white is it terrible, automatically? That's the metric? If it is that straight forward, why is it still being sold?
I choose to believe a healthy diet is a balanced diet. I believe I can have a balanced diet while eating white bread, white rice, white potatoes, and using white sugar. The cost of eating as we choose is already high, literally. I understand the figurative sense as in "we can't afford to continue to eat what we can afford" because of food related illness. Nonetheless, we already spend, an abnormal amount to keep our apartments warm, mold-free, rodent-free... some of us (51.6% according to DCP) spend an unusual amount on rent itself. So, I choose to believe, there is a way I can eat within my budget, within my culture and stay healthy.
There must be a way to educate ourselves within our own boundaries. I don't mind promoting eating quinoa, and I heard its indigenous to South America. I don't mind hyping up eating okra and yams, I hear it came from Africa through the slave trade. I don't mind even cutting out meat totally from my diet, my Rastafari brother's and sisters have too. All I ask is that this education is culturally responsive.
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