Lilia's Healthbook: New in Health: The African Heritage Diet Pyramid (What?!)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

New in Health: The African Heritage Diet Pyramid (What?!)

Hello Lovely people,

www.oldways.com

Oldways has created the African Heritage Diet Pyramid with the help of experts in the African Diaspora. According to Oldways, the African Heritage Diet Pyramid "was designed specifically for African Americans, and African descendant populations everywhere, to introduce them to their Healthy Heritage. It can also be used by anyone wanting to use heritage as a guide to eating well."

The Pyramid is designed to celebrate the individual foods and the traditional healthy eating patterns of African Heritage, with roots in America, Africa, the Caribbean, or South America.  From what I've seen, as a St. Lucian, I recognize a lot of food that we, St.Lucians and other people of the Caribbean eat, such as callalo, guava, yams, breadfruit, plantains, cassava etc.

An excerpt from Oldways: he foods of African Heritage contain lots to be celebrated, and they begin with the main ingredient of African American cooking today—flavor! Heaps of herbs, spices, and savory sauces jazz up simple, healthful vegetable-focused meals, showing us that “healthy eating” also means great taste. Traditional African Heritage meals are based on an abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables, especially leafy greens; tubers like sweet potatoes; beans of all kinds; nuts and peanuts; rice, flatbreads and other grain foods, especially whole grains; healthy oils; homemade sauces and marinades of herbs and spices; fish, eggs, poultry and yogurt; and minimal consumption of meat and sweets.

To me, this pyramid is proof that we need to take a step back away from the 'western' diet which is killing a lot of us in 'developing' countries; developing countries which are a large part in the Caribbean, South America and Africa--The African Diaspora! Let's go back to our roots and celebrate what traditionally what our grandmother, great grandmother ate while growing up...because they weren't eating fast foods that are high in sodium and saturated fat.