Saturday, December 2, 2006

Medical Anthropologist Offers a New Cultural Diet to Fight the Obesity Epidemic for African Americans

Medical Anthropologist Offers a New Cultural Diet to Fight the Obesity Epidemic for African Americans

Providing a cultural and comprehensive analysis of African American food preferences, medical anthropologist Eric Bailey shows us how African Americans generally perceive health, body image, food, dieting, physical fitness and exercise and how each of these factors play a significant role in his new "cultural diet" plan for African Americans.

Greenville, NC (PRWEB) April 5, 2006

In his new book (scheduled to be released on May 30, 2006) titled, "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: An Anthropologist Offers a New Cultural Diet," medical anthropologist Eric Bailey shows us how African Americans generally perceive health, body image, food, dieting, physical fitness and exercise. Like the majority of Americans overall, African Americans are becoming more overweight and obese than ever before. So, too, they are seeing the consequences -- heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and Type II diabetes at earlier and earlier ages. Bailey offers a new "cultural" diet for African Americans and a way to work together collectively to not only understand this critical health issue but also to establish a lifestyle strategy that will be both effective and manageable.

This book will interest not only general readers but also students and scholars in health and medicine, psychology and health psychology, nursing, social work and public health. Views from celebrity African Americans who have fought battles against their weight, a review of soul food cookbooks and the cultural history of African American cuisine, and a critique of the lack of corporate America's marketing of health and fitness programs and items to the African American community are spotlighted. Research on African American culture, diet and body image is presented. The book also includes an overview of federally funded diet and fitness programs for African Americans that have seen some success.

###