The food we eat, exposure to the sun and physical activity help create healthy or diseased bodies.
High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity - complicated by stress - have hit black people hard since we began spending much of our time indoors, being inactive and putting taste before nutrition.
Yes, how we respond to stress is an issue. And often, it comes down to what's sustaining our bodies. In spite of the terrible physical, emotional and psychic stress of slavery, blacks back then were generally in better shape than many of us are today.
Much of what is called food today looks good to the eyes and tastes "good" on the tongue, but is bad for the body. Fortunately, the awareness of the effects on families and the economy are forcing people to put natural eating and good nutrition first once again.
The pace and scope of this change might make it all feel like a passing fad. TV commercials and programs, doctors and politicians are increasingly promoting healthy foods. There's votes to win and money to make when you put "Nutrition first."
You know health foods are in high demand when Walmart promotes it. You know it's what's on when Tops, Wegmans and Price Rite are selling it - and when some food industry giants are labeling their "tasty" unhealthy food as "healthy" and/or "natural" to get in on it.
Don't be surprised if a health food store pops up in your area. Watch out, Lori's and Abundance! Those prices better come down, now. Shoo', we need neighborhood-run health food stores in the 'hood! People want to eat healthy.
It is no longer cool to reject healthy food because it looks like some hippie, "alternative," white people thing. And healthy eating is not supposed to be boring, Google "health food recipes." You'll be flooded with more tasty recipes than you can handle. It's an excellent time to be get creative.
Blacks as a people have been known for living in harmony with nature. (And the world ate healthier before the "free market" profit overdrive.) Remember, our closeness to nature was an Enlightenment era justification for slavery. The "civilized" world is now catching on to it.
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