Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Technology
Media
Small Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Social Pulse
Business Video
The Freeland File
Aerospace & Defense
Investing Simplified
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
Dividends
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Africa
Mexico
Russia
India Insight
World Video
Reuters Investigates
Decoder
Politics
Politics Home
Supreme Court
Politics Video
Tech
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Tech Tonic
Social Pulse
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
John Lloyd
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
David Rohde
Nader Mousavizadeh
Lucy P. Marcus
Nicholas Wapshott
Bethany McLean
Anatole Kaletsky
Zachary Karabell
Edward Hadas
Hugo Dixon
Ian Bremmer
Lawrence Summers
Susan Glasser
The Great Debate
Reihan Salam
Frederick Kempe
Mark Leonard
Steven Brill
Breakingviews
Equities
Credit
Private Equity
M&A
Macro & Markets
Politics
Breakingviews Video
Money
Money Home
Tax Break
Lipper Awards 2012
Global Investing
MuniLand
Unstructured Finance
Linda Stern
Mark Miller
John Wasik
James Saft
Analyst Research
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Money Clip
Investing 201
Life
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Reuters TV
Reuters News
Article
Comments (0)
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
Yen hits two-year low, Asian shares rise on U.S. fiscal hopes
1:26am EST
Petition urges White House to classify Westboro church as hate group
27 Dec 2012
Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. commander in Gulf War, dies at 78
|
12:46am EST
Apple CEO's pay takes big hit vs. record 2011 package
|
27 Dec 2012
Film explores African-Americans' unhealthy "soul food" habit
27 Dec 2012
Discussed
130
UPDATE 1-US administration urges Republicans not to block ‘fiscal cliff’ deal
112
Lawmakers play waiting game with ‘fiscal cliff’ deadline in sight
81
Americans blame Republicans more than Democrats for ”fiscal cliff”: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Pictures
Reuters Photojournalism
Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption
Top grossing actors
Robert Downey Jr. is the top grossing actor of 2012, according to Forbes.com. Slideshow
Gift cards for guns
Police traded gift cards for guns during a Los Angeles buyback program. Slideshow
Sponsored Links
Film explores African-Americans' unhealthy "soul food" habit
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
Spending on food advertising to kids fell in '09 - U.S. FTC
Fri, Dec 21 2012
Special Report: The Unequal State of America - Lean times for the "undeserving poor"
Thu, Dec 20 2012
Taking a tip from tech, food incubators launch startups
Thu, Dec 13 2012
YouTube's "Epic Chef" offers gluttony to the masses
Tue, Dec 11 2012
Extra fruit may not ward off daily hunger
Fri, Nov 30 2012
Analysis & Opinion
Obama should treat gun control like LBJ did civil rights
Related Topics
Entertainment »
Fashion »
Film »
Music »
Lifestyle »
Filmmaker Byron Hurt is pictured with his mother, Frances Hurt, and sister, Taundra Hurt, holding family photos of Hurt's father, Jackie Hurt, who died in 2007 at age 64 as a result of pancreatic cancer in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters December 21, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Bryon Hurt/Handout
By Harriet McLeod
Thu Dec 27, 2012 8:29pm EST
(Reuters) - After interviewing food historians, scholars, cooks, doctors, activists and consumers for his new film "Soul Food Junkies," filmmaker Byron Hurt concluded that an addiction to soul food is killing African-Americans at an alarming rate.
The movie, which will premiere on January 14 on U.S. public broadcasting television, examines how black cultural identity is linked to high-calorie, high-fat food such as fried chicken and barbecued ribs and how eating habits may be changing.
In the deeply personal film, Hurt details his father's fight and eventual death from pancreatic cancer. A high-fat diet is a risk factor for the illness, according to researchers at Duke University in North Carolina.
"I never questioned what we ate or how much," 42-year-old New Jersey-based Hurt says in the film that travels from New Jersey and New York to Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Chicago.
"My father went from being young and fit to twice his size."
Hurt, who also made "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," decided to examine the link between calorie-loaded soul food and illnesses among blacks after his father was diagnosed in 2006.
He delves into his family history, as well as slavery, the African diaspora and the black power movement in the film and provides photographs, drawings, historic film footage and maps.
In Jackson, Mississippi, Hurt joined football fans for ribs and corn cooked with pigs' feet and turkey necks. He also visited Peaches Restaurant, founded in 1961, where freedom riders and civil rights activists including Martin Luther King Jr. ate.
Hurt, whose family came from Milledgeville, Georgia, grew up on a diet of fried chicken, pork chops, macaroni and cheese, potatoes and gravy, barbecued ribs, sweet potato pie, collard greens, ham hocks and black-eyed peas.
"The history of Southern food is complex," he said. "In many ways, the term soul food is a reduction of our culinary foodways."
The origins of the diet lie in the history of American slavery, according to food historian Jessica B. Harris, who appears in the film. Slaves ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet that would allow them to burn 3,000 calories a day working, she explained.
Southern food began to be called soul food during the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s, according to Hurt.
"There's an emotional connection and cultural pride in what they see as the food their population survived on in difficult times," he said.
But Hurt said African-Americans are being devastated by nutrition-related diseases.
Black adults have the highest rates of obesity and a higher prevalence of diabetes than whites, and are twice as likely to die of stroke before age 75 than other population groups, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Besides tradition and habit, poverty and neighborhoods without good supermarkets also contribute to an unhealthy diet, Hurt said.
"Low-income communities of color lack access to vegetables and have an overabundance of fast food and highly processed foods that are high in calories and fats. I always know when I'm in a community of color because I see ... very, very few supermarkets and health food stores," he added.
In her book, "High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America," Harris said the prevalence of over processed foods, low-quality meats, and second- or third-rate produce in minority neighborhoods amounts to "culinary apartheid."
In the film, Marc Lamont Hill, an associate professor of English education at Columbia University in New York, described minority health problems related to poor diet as "21st-century genocide."
Hurt says the government can help by increasing urban access to quality food and requiring calorie counts to be displayed on restaurant menus.
Nonprofit organizations such as Growing Power Inc., which runs urban farms in Chicago and Milwaukee, provide fresh vegetables to minority neighborhoods.
Brian Ellis, 21, said all he ate was fast food when he started working at one of Growing Power's urban farms in Chicago when he was 14.
"Then I started eating food I'd never seen before like Swiss chard," said Ellis, who appears in the film. "I never knew what beets were. I'd never seen sprouts before. I'm not that big of a beet fan, but I love sprouts. I could eat sprouts all day."
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Mohammad Zargham)
Entertainment
Fashion
Film
Music
Lifestyle
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment on reuters.com.
Add yours using the box above.
Edition:
U.S.
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Support
Corrections
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
AdChoices
Copyright
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.