"The Harms Associated with Eating More Southern-Style Food"
African Americans have a higher burden of cardiovascular disease
and diabetes than other American ethnic groups,
but recent evidence indicates that eating a plant-based diet
may help eliminate such health disparities, as I explored previously.
African Americans as a group tend to have the highest reported
meat consumption and the lowest vegetable consumption,
and part of this is access, but this article detailing
the experience of a Morehouse Lifestyle Medical Clinic
noted that there also appears to be an issue with aspects
of the African American food culture. Enter: the REGARDS study:
the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study.
The study found that regardless of where African Americans live
in the United States, they are much more likely to consume
what the researchers called a Southern diet, which is
a dietary pattern characterized by added fats, fried foods, eggs,
organ meats, processed meats, and sugar-sweetened beverages.
They found that this type of dietary pattern mediates
the majority of the racial disparity.
Adherence to the Southern dietary pattern
increased stroke risk by 39% in Black Americans.
In contrast, the greatest benefit was seen among participants
who followed a more plant-based dietary pattern,
which conferred a 29% lower stroke risk.
Same thing with heart failure. Eating more plant-based
was associated with a 41% lower risk of heart failure,
while the Southern dietary pattern was associated with a 72%
higher risk, and this is after controlling for things like
education and income.
Death from kidney disease. Same thing.
More plant-based linked to lower risk of mortality,
whereas eating closer to the Southern diet associated
with a greater risk of kidney disease mortality.
Those eating more Southern style diets likewise had
a 56% higher hazard of acute heart disease.
This finding was particularly interesting:
Dietary patterns and risk of sepsis.
Sepsis is the syndrome of body-wide inflammation
triggered by infection and is a major public health problem.
That's how an infection can kill you.
Now we know diet plays a vital role in immune health,
but its association with sepsis was unclear,
but a Southern dietary pattern of eating was associated with
higher risk of sepsis as well, particularly among Black participants.
What about cognitive function? Once again, greater consumption
of the Southern dietary pattern was associated with worse outcomes,
lower scores on the assessments of each of the cognitive domains
like learning and memory, whereas greater consumption
of the plant-based pattern was associated with higher scores.
Here's the data on learning. The more plant-based
people ate, the better they were at a learning task.
Meanwhile, the more Southern style people ate,
the worse they were at learning. Same thing with memory.
Better the more plant based, worse the more southern style.
It is therefore possible that the increased prevalence of
Alzheimer's in African Americans could be partially reduced
via dietary modification.
Easy for privileged me to tell people to eat healthier,
but isn't it expensive to eat plant-based?
Uh, have you seen the price of beans?
There's this common misconception that plant-based diets are
more costly than animal-based ones, so proper education will be needed.
A vegetarian diet could result in approximately $750
per year in savings. So healthier and cheaper.
What would you do with an extra $750 in your pocket,
not to mention all the healthcare cost savings.
I mean, a plant-based dinner consisting of red beans, brown rice,
collard greens, sweet potato, and cornbread could feed
a family of four for under $12 or $3 bucks per person.
Check it out. Some of the healthiest foods
on the planet are some of the cheapest foods.
Such a meal would not only be cost-effective, but nutritious,
providing a mountain of nutrition, plus a host of antioxidants
to protect against various diseases like heart disease and cancer.
Here's the save-$750-bucks-a-year- eating-more-plant-based study.
Why? Because you're cutting out meat, poultry, seafood.
And when one considers total grocery costs,
animal products can be the most expensive components,
costing more than double the cost of a serving of vegetables
or legumes like beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils.