No matter where rapper, actor, and producer David Banner goes, he always reps his home state of Mississippi (he literally has the state tattooed across his back). Now the talented actor and activist is seen in Oscar-winning films, on Capital Hill lobbying and working out and trying to better his health and the health of the Black community. But the rapper wasn’t always fit. He grew up like many of us, eating lots of comfort foods. After ballooning to more than 255 lbs, his eating habits and (non-existent) workout routine had put his health at serious risk. Banner shared how (and why) he decided to finally drop the weight.
“I had high blood pressure, really high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and I was really close to diabetes. And the doctor was like, ‘that’s a deadly combination.’ The doctor said, ‘you really gotta’ get it together.’ I just took it as a challenge. After I did an interview with allhiphop.com, I had so many young black and Latino people come to me to say, “dude, I’m in the same situation.” So, I really took it as an initiative to help people get healthy. And that pushed me that much further, and motivated me to push that much farther.”
“Everything I was doing, was adding stress: working, going to acting school, eating on the go, etc. Literally, the doctor told me that if I didn’t lose weight, I would die. He actually told me that I only had three months to live.”
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“To be honest with you, I had a motorcycle accident, and when I went into the emergency room, my blood pressure was so high that the doctor really didn’t treat any of the injuries from the accident. He’s like, ‘dude, you have a blood pressure problem that you need to handle.'”
Taking a more serious look at his health, Banner knew he had to change his eating habits. “Macaroni and cheese is probably the hardest thing for me, so is fried chicken,” admits Banner. “But what I tell people is this: once you submerge yourself into healthy eating, I am willing to bet any amount of money that you will find the same amount of healthy things that you like and dislike, that you would unhealthy things. I don’t like every…
