Food and New Year’s Resolutions: Part II Food Rebels

Photo of Malcolm X taking a picture of and Muhammad Ali at a luncheonette counter. They are examples of food rebels I talk about in the book Hog and Hominy

With the New Year here, folks are much more open about taking a critical look at what they eat. The final chapter of my book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/webFeatures looks at several debates that developed over eating soul food during the 1960s and 1970s. Some African-American intellectuals like Amiri Baraka and Verta Mae Grosvenor argued that soul food was a unique part of black culture and therefore the intellectual capital of black folk. Euro-American food critics like Craig Claiborne insisted that soul food was a southern regional food that belonged to southerners. And three groups of African Americans I call “food rebels” argued that soul food is nothing to be celebrated or guarded as our own because it was killing black folk. In the final chapter of the book, I argue that black Muslims, advocates of natural-food diets, and college-and university-educated African Americans recipes and making them healthier; that’s why I offer both traditional and vegan recipes on my blog. Over the next couple of days I will discuss from the book ways you can eat and cook for maximum health this year.