This holiday season was marred by the death of a favorite aunt, my mom’s sister, who she always called “O.M.”

O.M. passed away after a long, full life. Her health declined due to a physical condition that is strongly correlated with food. The last of the big aunts to pass away, making my siblings and first cousins the new elders. I, for one, was not ready.

In our family, like in most African-American families, we love to eat. We were blessed by some great cooks who could “get down” in the kitchen. My favorite two foods growing up were fried chicken and biscuits and it didn’t matter who was cooking it —my mom or one of my aunts—that jawn was always on-point.

In my early 30s, I gave up deep-fried chicken. I couldn’t cook it as well as my elders and in fact, all I ever did was burn it. I reject the idea of using so much oil for a dish and olive oil is just too expensive for deep frying. I bake a mean substitute and since it has been so long since I have eaten the real deal, baked is just fine. It didn’t take long to get used to it.

Similarly, I refuse to cook biscuits with animal or the C-word vegetable shortening after learning the harm it causes. Once in a while though, I pull out the palm oil shortening or coconut oil to make my version of a home biscuit. It does not taste as good as the real version but it gets the job done.

Not everyone likes the idea of substituting soul food. It’s strongly tied to our culture and family gatherings. However, health problems are also tied to our culture—-heart, kidney, stomach and intestinal, metabolic diseases—and too many family gatherings are funerals, a result of those health problems.

As a gardening and health advocate, I am aggressively targeting the food consumption behaviors in my family, while also promoting more physical activities. For this post, I am targeting sugar.

Recently, I had a very tasty pecan pie baked by none other than my dad. He is a great baker and well-known for that talent. About ten years ago, I told him that I could no longer eat his pies because they were too sweet for me. So, he altered his recipe to use less sugar.

That lasted until this past month when I ate some of his latest baked delicacies–a pecan pie. The pie was extremely good because it was so sugary. I also observed some signs of imbalance in my health after eating it. (Note: Sugar is as addicting as any drug. When you eat clean and then slip up, you will notice changes.)

Avoiding sugar is difficult because so many packaged foods are full of sugar. We have been raised to crave it. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average American adult eats somewhere between 22 and 30 teaspoons worth of added sugar in a day.

I repeat: sugar is as addicting as any drug. When you eat clean and then slip up, you will notice changes. Don’t ignore those changes. Take steps to reduce it in your diet. Here are some of the consequences of a high sugar diet:

• Type 2 diabetes.
• Overweight or obesity.
• Fatty liver disease.
• Chronic Inflammation.
• Heart disease.
• Stroke.
• Pancreatitis.

While you are making changes, be sure to start/continue getting daily physical exercise to use up those carbohydrates. Taking a walk with your friends and family is the easiest and no-cost way to get moving. Join us on our next walk if you are in our area!

ColorBlindWork | People. Plants. Purpose.

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Disclaimer: Our Thanksgiving dinner included steak and short ribs with homemade BBQ sauce, mac and cheese, carrots, sweet potatoes, collard greens and homemade biscuits. I eat steak once every few months and pork once (or less) each year. We are not completely done with soul food but we choose to eat it much less often than we have in previous years.