The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have once again developed new food guidelines for Americans that urge people to adopt a diet full of nutritious foods. For the first time, they make recommendations for the nutrition of babies and for different stages of life.
However, as in previous reports, there is no seasoning in them. They do not acknowledge the nuances of culture and ethnicity at the heart of how Americans feed themselves.
Congress must review these guidelines every five years to ensure that they reflect the best available science and respond to the health needs of the general population.
Ethnic changes have been suggested years ago, but there is still little guidance for Americans of different backgrounds on how they can eat healthier.
“There are different ways you can be racist,” said Esosa Edosomwan, a certified nutritionist and behavior coach in Washington, DC “You can be racist by letting people go, by making instructions that will only serve a specific group. “Edosomwan – an American from Nigeria also known as the Raw Girl – embarked on her nutrition journey while trying to find a diet that would help reduces persistent acne. She found a raw food class and started writing about the food-as-a-medicine reeducation on her blog, Raw Girl Toxic World.
“I was trying to figure out what I could do that would allow me to treat people with nutrition,” she said. “I’ve seen mostly white women in this field who were famous nutritionists.”
“A white dietitian, she’s probably going to tell you to have some Greek yogurt with a handful of almonds and a protein serving the size of your fist, when you really want egusi soup,” he said. Edosomwan, refers to a West African dish made from the ground, nutritious egusi seeds, vegetables and meat or fish. Food is a big part of culture, and you can’t rule out where a client comes from, she said. Her clients are encouraged to cook within their culture, but make changes to ingredients when needed to improve nutritional quality.
“This direction is completely inappropriate in achieving our best health,” Edosomwan said of government guidelines. Statistics maintain this. According to a 2017 JAMA study, nearly half of U.S. deaths from heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes could be partly explained by poor diet. These health conditions disproportionately affect people of color. For example, 11.7% of blacks, 12.5% of Hispanics and 9.2% of non-Hispanic Asians were diagnosed with diabetes, against 7.5% of non-Hispanic whites, according to the National Illness Statistics Report Sugar 2020.
The USDA has a long history of providing “science-based diet guidelines to the American public” and frequently reviews. It dates from World War II. An attempt to correct overeating came with the “Food Pyramid” – first published in 1992. Recently the recommendations were dubbed “My Plate,” with an app that can be downloaded to any mobile device. But simplifying the proposals could make them less relevant.
“Culture is everything,” said Inez Sobczak, a certified nutritionist and owner of Fit-Nez in Arlington, Virginia. Sobczak was born in Miami to Cuban refugees and has been a nutritionist for 15 years, specializing in weight loss, hormone regulation and emotional and stress eating.
While USDA guidelines may not account for all food cultures, Sobczak said, they could be more inclusive. And while she can’t create a new food pyramid overnight – it’s a more complicated process than one might think – she tries to teach people color how to eat better.
Oldways, a Boston-based group, has been trying for decades. He first developed a Mediterranean food pyramid in 1993 and has since created records for the African, Latin American and Asian diets, as well as those for vegans and vegans. It also offers classes, such as the six-week Taster program of African heritage. Kelly Toups, director of nutrition at Oldways, said the group is also participating in sessions with the USDA. But little has changed.
“It would be good to see more cultural representations more clearly reflected in the guidelines,” she said.
Why did it never happen? Partly because the process is complicated: A government committee of about 20 scientists and health experts is examining the National Health and Nutrition Examination. The survey tries to find out what people are eating and how healthy they are. The interviews, conducted in English or Spanish, leave Americans who speak other languages.
Next, the committee “models food patterns” by looking at different food groups, the nutrients they provide and what each group needs at each stage of life to establish recommendations.
These recommendations are set by age and gender but do not take into account variables such as ethnicity, geographical location or access to healthy food. “If I had to measure, you’re usually looking at things that are available in conventional grocery stores in the U.S.,” said Sarah Reinhardt, chief food systems and health analyst in the food and environment program at Union of Concerned Scientists.
In July the USDA released a whopping 835-page scientific report that formed the basis for the 2020-2025 Theological Guidelines, which was released in late December.
Wait, there’s more. The federal committee also examines heaps of food research. But it cannot evaluate research that is not available. The vegetable and Mediterranean diet has been studied in detail, but few studies look at the diet of West Africans or Native Americans, for example.
The USDA acknowledges this gap. In the 2020 report, members raised the issue. “Nutrition science would benefit scientists in the field doing primary study in more diverse numbers with different age groups and different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds,” said one from the USDA.
However, the food industry is still in control and leading the debate. Because of the lack of public funding, Reinhardt said, much of the nutrition study is funded by the industry. “Science is not neutral. It very much depends on who sets the agenda,” she said.
One issue is that the African American diet is not a monolith. “There are a lot of immigrants in this country who are black but hail from different cultural backgrounds,” Edosomwam said.
For example, there are a lot of tubers in the African diet – things like yams and cassava, she said. But some African American diets, especially those returned to slavery, are based on the concept of “soul food”, which derives from the practice of making food from leftover leftovers. which allowed slave owners to eat – food such as pig manure, so – called. chitterlings.
“Food and cultural traditions are important,” she said. “But part of the challenge is helping people” repeat these vessels to make them healthier by changing the ingredients and creating new traditions. “Unfortunately, she said,” there is no plant-based substitute for chitterlings. “
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