There’s a new way to eat, according to the updated federal food guide, represented by an “inverted pyramid.” The new dietary information, which combines good insights with ideas that differ from previous guidelines, raises many questions about how to put it into practice. With so many changes, we might ask whether there are opportunities for Black families to make healthier food choices, or if we are excluded from the conversation, prevented from accessing healthy options equally, or overlooked when it comes to voicing our genuine concerns about the practicality of eating “real” food. This risk of being left out could mean we are not fully part of the ongoing discussion.
Due to long-standing barriers like cost, access, and mistrust, will following this pathway to whole foods mean better health outcomes for us, or just a vague pathway with potential and promise and nothing more? The “inverted pyramid” has definite potential, but when it comes to how realistic, affordable, and culturally relevant it is, does this one graphic stand for equal access for all? Despite these concerns, it remains to be determined if it is a meaningful tool. In the Black community, where diet-related diseases are common and access to fresh food is often limited, the new focus on “real” food could be a missed opportunity that, as the Trump administration says, “can change the health trajectory of America.”
The old system failed the Black communities
Past nutrition guidance prioritized inexpensive, processed calories and contributed to health disparities that persist today. Calories consumed from processed foods are not the same as those from a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, and lean protein. But if it came in a bag, a box, or a can, we ate it. Some of us even followed meals with processed food snacks. The experts let us down. We saw the lower cost savings of cheap, quick, and easy cuisine. We did not connect processed food to poor health. Natural and artificial flavors give food its taste. It was simple to prepare. If it required any stove or oven time, that was minimal. All that was necessary was the ability to “add water and make its own sauce,” and the instant meal was made. Once the connection was made between diet and disease, our growing mistrust didn’t mean much.
You May Also Like
RELATED: 6 Foods That Steal Your Body’s Nutrients
Food deserts and limited access
Without alternatives, a strong voice, or a platform, those who raised concerns quickly saw that culturally relevant, processed food bought from the corner store or in the form of convenience-driven food choices were a part of life in the food desert common in our communities. There was no oasis of healthy foods to replace what we had access to with a grocery gap that featured limited choices.
For many of us, access means what we can get on foot, by bicycle, or by bus. Corner stores don’t worry about or require reliable transportation, and few carry fresh produce. The common grocery gap and the unequal access to affordable, nutritious, quality whole foods and fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods turn food insecurity, poor health, and shorter lifespans into a commonality for many of us.
You May Also Like
The main generational health risk of eating cheaply is chronic disease. If you have unequal access, live in a food desert or food swamp, full of fast food and convenience stores, this negatively impacts your health due to limited choices from the overabundance of unhealthy options. This is what you’re up against when you try to implement the inverted pyramid of the new national food guidelines. Access to any food is not enough. Access to healthy food is what matters for better health outcomes, a decrease in chronic diet-based diseases, and lower mortality rates.
Economic challenges
Inaccessible barriers to affordable whole foods are the root of the problem when it comes to economic challenges. The first priority in understanding the issue of accessibility is to ask if whole foods are available. If so, it is important to determine whether or not there is a barrier, like cost, and whether whole foods are affordable. Healthy, “real” whole foods featured at the top of the “inverted pyramid” are a real economic challenge to implementation with such a health goal.
From cheap calories to “real” food
Do not lose heart, however. The new guidelines can be applied in everyday Black households without specialty stores, extreme diets, or unrealistic budgets. The plain language of the new national guidelines is simple: “eat real food, avoid ultra-processed products, cut sugar aggressively, and stop pretending refined carbs are the foundation of a healthy diet.” This leads to the need for interpretation or for more clarity for most who need more specifics than the “inverted pyramid” provides. This may produce more overwhelm and anxiety with everyday folks trying to do their best for themselves and their families when they put food on the table. And everyone doesn’t have access to a personal nutritionist’s/dietitian’s guidance in helping to find what suits their body and their budget.
RELATED: The 6 Most Addictive Foods- And How to Break Free
Hope or hype?
The new national guidelines seek to change our history with the old system, but the struggle to get whole food is real if you live in a food desert with limited access that exists in many Black communities. The low-income neighborhoods many of our folks live in have grocery gaps, corner store-dependence, and convenience-driven food choices. These are definite barriers to accessing what both affordable food and the “real” whole foods championed by the new dietary guidelines are. There is a definite need to make a change from cheap calories to “real” whole foods. But change for those in the low-income areas of the Black community comes with a formidable cost.
The new guidelines offer some hope. However, the guidelines alone aren’t enough without addressing systemic and socio-economic barriers to following these guidelines. Significant barriers to eating better, no matter what neighborhood you’re in or zip code you have, are limits on whether or not you can eat “real” foods. Accessibility and cost are connected to implementation. This means those barriers must be addressed to make following the new dietary guidelines possible for all in our community.
If the guidelines remain vague to escape accountability, that also serves as a big barrier to implementation. Kudos are deserved for striving to create national dietary guidelines to try to improve the health of all people. However, this hope, full of potential, can quickly morph into empty hype if what is vague in the “inverted pyramid” and what is unsupported by science fail to make the realistic, systemic changes necessary to address implementation challenges such as cost, access, and mistrust for many of our people.
There are big barriers to making the new dietary guidelines a reality for the lower-income members of the Black community. Hope alone is not enough when it comes to addressing the real issues of accessibility and affordability. “Real” whole foods mean little for all of the Black community if nothing is done to lead to the actual, foundational, practical and realistic changes required first to “make [all of] America healthier”.
