When it comes to diets that promote optimal health, many dietitians and health professionals recommend the Mediterranean diet, as it is one of themost recognized and researched diets. Chances are, you’ve probably heard of or read something about the Mediterranean diet at some point.
With the widespread attention that the diet often receives, it can sometimes seem like theMediterranean dietis the only healthy one. However, this is not true, as other eating patterns are also linked with health outcomes.
Also recognizing this isOldways, a food and nutrition nonprofit focused on improving public health through heritage-based diets. In 2011, Oldways introduced the African Heritage Diet food pyramid with an advisory panel of leading health experts, culinarians and scholars of African descent, including culinary historianJessica B. Harris, Ph.D.The African Heritage Diet highlights the rich culinary traditions and contributions of the African diaspora, a term describing the collection of peoples of African descent residing mostly on the African continent or, due to the slave trade, in South America, the Caribbean islands, in North America and throughout the world. The food pyramid helps conceptualize the diet’s recommendations.
Not only does the African Heritage Diet showcase healthy,plant-based foodsenjoyed across the diaspora for years, but it also rewrites the narrative surrounding nutrition and health in African American communities, using food and history as a source of empowerment.
Migration Meals: How African American Food Transformed the Taste of America
Photo: Getty Images. Design: Tambra Stevenson.
What Comprises the African Heritage Diet?
TheAfrican Heritage Dietcelebrates and highlights the foods, eating patterns and rich cultural heritage of the African diaspora—in Africa, the Caribbean, parts of South America and the American South—while meeting many of the guidelines that experts recommend for supporting optimal health.
To help conceptualize the diet’s recommendations, Oldways created the African Heritage Diet Pyramid. Unlike other food pyramids, which have been criticized for not reflecting how people truly eat, theAfrican Heritage Diet Pyramidwas crafted in a way that depicts relative amounts of foods that should comprise a typical diet over time.
The bottom of the pyramid features foods that make up the foundation of the diet, with the recommendation to base each meal on these foods—fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, beans, whole grains, tubers, nuts and seeds. The pyramid also emphasizes flavoring foods with herbs, spices and sauces rather than high amounts of salt. Greens are so important in the African Heritage Diet that they have their own category (the bottom layer).
Further up the pyramid are foods that are eaten more moderately, including poultry, eggs, meat, fish, seafood, dairy and healthy oils. Unlike other eating patterns, such as the Mediterranean diet, fats (including healthy oils) aren’t consumed as frequently in African diasporic cultures.
Courtesy ofOldways. EatingWell design.
Here’s a non-exhaustivelist of foodsto include on your African Heritage Diet-friendly shopping list:
Health Benefits of the African Heritage Diet
A 2022 peer-reviewed study, published in theJournal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, evaluated “A Taste of African Heritage,” a six-week cooking and nutrition curriculum based on healthy, plant-based foods from the African diaspora, and showed that participants in the program reported:
How to Get Started
Looking to include more African Heritage Diet foods throughout your week? The good news is that you’re likely already eating many foods that are part of this eating pattern. Most of these ingredients can be found either in your pantry or at your nearest food market.
You can also search online to find local restaurants and markets near you that sell and/or serve foods from across the African diaspora. Seeing or tasting new ingredients (likeegusi seedsor ackee) or familiar ones prepared in a new way (such as using peanut butter to make mafe, a West African peanut stew) can serve as inspiration when deciding what to cook.
Recipe to Try:Chicken Stew with Collard Greens & Peanuts
For the past decade, Oldways'“A Taste of African Heritage"class has helped people learn more about the African Heritage Diet and how to cook quick and affordable meals from the African diaspora. People of all demographic and professional backgrounds areinvited to registerfor the course or bring this program to their community to help honor both heritage and health in African American communities.
To bring the wisdom of the African Heritage Diet into your kitchen, try boosting flavor with spices, making vegetables the star of your plate, leaning on rice and beans your new staples, and going for the greens.
The Bottom Line
To eat healthy in 2023 and beyond, look beyond the Mediterranean to the Motherland and the diverse array of foods that make up the African Heritage Diet. It is an eating pattern rich in flavors and history and can provide all the nutrition you need to live your best possible life.
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