My Black is NOT Cracking.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that the purpose of this blog is to share anti-aging, inspirational, and health focused information and experiences.  (As well as a funny story or two.)

The original concept was to write for women. (And the men that loved them.)  Clearly, I wanted men to understand what the women in their lives might be going through.  Mostly, that we aren’t crazy!  (Well, some of us might be a “lil cray!”)  Being a girl isn’t easy.  At the same time, I wanted to offer information that benefited everyone.  Let’s face it, if our men aren’t okay, we aren’t okay.  I don’t care if it is your son, your spouse, your partner, or your dad! 

Quick story to introduce this guest post. Rodney Renshaw was family, a friend, and a super talented chef.  Back in my culinary days, we talked about starting a catering business together. In fact, we did an event or two. I had finally graduated culinary school years before and my goal was to develop a business model based on healthy, mostly plant-based foods.  (This was years before “wellness” and “plant-based” became “a thing!”)  Rodney, on the other hand, was used to creating his culinary masterpieces at such prestigious hotels as The Watergate in DC, and the Four Seasons in Miami Beach where he served things like Curried Salmon and Shrimp Cakes with Roasted Garlic Aioli, Country Ham and Bleu Cheese Biscuits, Creole Salt Cod, Black Eyed-Pea Cakes with Herbed Goat Cheese, Barbecue Curry Shrimp Salad with Coconut and Vanilla Vinaigrette, and finally, THE TRILOGY OF SWEET POTATO DELIGHTS!  I know.  Wipe your drool! Don’t get it twisted. I hear Rodney’s Kale salad was kick ass as well.

Rodney was a diabetic.  And sadly, Rodney, like most men, did not take care of himself.  We never really got around to launching our business as I ended up in LA, with a new plan to become a personal chef. I’m sure I told that story of how I took on freelance accounting work until I could launch my businesses.  I continued to do accounting work for another 15 years!  What can I say?  Regrets are useless!

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One morning, I woke up and thought about Rodney, so I reached out.  We had not spoken in years, but I was revisiting my idea of launching a food biz and wanted to know if he was still interested.  There was only one problem I quickly learned.  Rodney was in the hospital.  An infection, as I recall, in his spine had paralyzed him from the waist down.  He was missing toes and possibly a finger.  Over the phone, his once strong voice sounded weak.  He sounded horrible, until I mentioned food!  He came to life.  I told him, we could still launch the business.  I would be his hands and his feet.  His creativity was alive and well!

To honor this once promising culinary superstar who had succumbed to one of the very issues my original business plan sought to eliminate, I decided we needed to write a cookbook.  We needed to document this man’s culinary genius.  I planned to title the book, “My Brother’s Kitchen” with a subtitle that would be some clever play on “I am my brother’s keeper.” 

I came home and visited him in the hospital.  I will share in another post what I wrote about that visit.  Rodney would pass away before we ever documented one recipe at the age of 49!  Rodney’s death was preventable. 

So, in an effort to look out for my brothers, I invited John Washington, a/k/a Jay, to start contributing to this blog as a guest.  Jay has been a reader and supporter of mine since day one and I asked him if he would be willing to contribute.  I am happy to report, he said yes.  Jay will address topics that should be of interest to all men, but especially, my brothers!  And as I see it, it should be of interest to the women who love them! No more preventable deaths on my watch! 

Below, I share with you one of Chef Rodney’s Recipes for Mixed Green Chowder! So stay tuned to the end!

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I introduce to you, John Emerson Washington.

Hey Brothers, unbelievably, getting old is not part of our legacy nor is the journey a healthy one for many of us. No, it is not destiny. We all are aware of the damaging and harmful effects that slavery wrought but we can change that narrative. Black can crack and it can crack deeply and painfully. This post offers some insights into the state of Black men’s health in America and how we as individuals with the help of our community can build it back better. Over the past couple of years, Kay has been gracious to share her research, knowledge, and wisdom about “feeling good, making Black women look good” so ‘fellas, here’s our time. Thanks Kay!

According to the Census Bureau, the 2020 life expectancies at birth for Black Americans are 77.0 years, with 79.8 years for women, and 74.0 years for men. For non-Hispanic whites, the projected life expectancies are 80.6 years, with 82.7 years for women, and 78.4 years for men. Moreover, we have the highest death rate of any racial/ethnic group per the “Population Reference Bureau (PRB).” The disadvantage for us appears for all the major causes of death: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and cerebrovascular diseases. Unfortunately, many of these conditions coexist and negatively impact the quality of our lives and the lives of the people around us that we love and that love us, especially our ladies.

The ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) Advocacy Foundation” agenda item on “Health and Nutrition” states that the rate of diabetes in the Black American community is almost double that of our white counterparts of the same age. We’ll look at Type 2 diabetes and hear about my experience dealing with risk factors, early detection, and ways to help prevent (and in needed cases) reverse it without medication. You may be asking yourself why diabetes and the answer stems from my dad’s discovery of having diabetes in his late forties and my ongoing battle with pre-diabetes. So, in short, I am familiar with it and it is personal. In 2019, it was one of top five leading causes of death of Black men at a death rate of 45.3 per 100,000 persons compared to 23.6 per 100,000 persons for non-Hispanic white men. If one is lucky not to die from it but live, diabetes can cause complications such as heart and blood vessel disease, nerve damage, kidney disease, blindness, slow healing that might require toe, foot, or leg amputation and other serious health problems.

Type 2 diabetes is an impairment in the way the body regulates and uses sugar (glucose) as a fuel. This long-term (chronic) condition results in too much sugar circulating in the bloodstream. Eventually, high blood sugar levels can lead to disorders of the circulatory, nervous, and immune systems. In Type 2 diabetes, there are primarily two interrelated problems at work. Your pancreas does not produce enough insulin — a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into your cells — and cells respond poorly to insulin and take in less sugar. Although there is no cure for Type 2 diabetes, studies show it is possible for some people to reverse it. Losing weight, eating well and exercising can help you reach and hold normal blood sugar levels without medication.

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My father, John “Johnny” Washington was one of the most exemplary and influential persons in my life. As far as health, he really took care of himself by visiting the doctor and dentist regularly. He also made sure that my sister and I did as well. His diligence is how he came to find out that he was at risk for diabetes. Back in the mid to late sixties, I can remember him using ‘Lilly Tes-Tape’ urine sugar analysis paper on a regular basis to confirm his diagnosis. After it was confirmed, he immediately cut out sugar, sweets, and desserts. (Much to my youthful chagrin for I loved my mom’s baking and the cookies, cakes and other baked goods and desserts that he brought home from German, Swiss, Dutch, and other specialty bakeries) For him, portion control saved him because he still ate most of the other foods that he enjoyed but he limited them and did not overeat. Back then I don’t think the medical field knew much about the complicity of bad carbohydrates like processed foods and starches. These foods will spike your blood sugar levels and are called glycemic foods or foods that quickly turn to sugar in your bloodstream once eaten. At home, we still had big metal tins of pretzels, crackers, and other processed snack foods. Thankfully, about the same time, the wooden cases of Pepsi-Cola that my mother loved, and the ‘Drink-A-Toast,’ (a/k/a Take-a-Boost) a locally produced high-sugar content beverage, disappeared from the house. As a result, he lost a lot of weight and was able to control his diabetes without medication. In fact, he lost so much weight that he had to have his clothes taken in. His pants were altered so much that I remember one of my cousins teasing him about his back pockets almost touching each other. LOL! His discipline prevented him from taking medication or insulin until he was in his late eighties.

Right now, I’m struggling with my blood sugar teetering back in forth between normal and the pre-diabetic range. I know this from doctor visits where I request A1c tests. The A1c test can estimate how much glucose or blood sugar is in the bloodstream over the last three months. This test, along with a glucose test are important screening tools for someone like me with a diabetic parent. My goal is to keep the needle in the normal range. In a week or so, I’ll kick off a journey with a virtual community on an app called, “Betr Health.” This community of people use “food as medicine.” The program was referred to me by my health insurer and comes as part of my standard benefits.

It has become noticeably clear to me that to attain my goal, I’ll need to maintain a proper weight, (whatever that is for me to feel and look ok) and exercise regularly (which I pretty much do now) among other things. To put it more bluntly, I will need to make these traits into habits. Kay referenced in an earlier post about the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear. In his book, he offers many practical strategies to build good habits and break the bad ones. He says that “One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where 1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and 2) you already have something in common with the group.” Clear emphasizes his point by drawing on ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to explain the positive benefits that ‘belonging’ has on us as a species and in the formation of habits.

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In many ways I was truly fortunate to grow up in a family culture that prioritized health. Since that family culture no longer exists, I need to join a culture that also prioritizes health to meet my needs today. There are so many opportunities to do that both in-person and virtually. From the health app Betr Health to the Black Community Healing Network’s “Emotional Emancipation Healing Circles,” technology has made the offerings more plentiful, reaching distant places around the country and globe, with the potential to transform Black people’s lives. Reparations to our health are just as important as reparations to increase our wealth. We must take responsibility for our health.

As with all things, you take the good along with the bad. There were some things that my Dad did not model. A regular and consistent cardio and weight bearing exercise routine was not part of his life. He kept an active schedule with family, meeting up friends, outings, work, home maintenance and repairs, community organizing and civic work but purposeful exercise activities such as running, or weight training was not his nor my Mom’s thing. Hey, I’m not knocking it for as a youth, they encouraged me to play team sports. After that, as an adult, I developed a passion for exercise and keeping it moving. It’s one of the things that I do to make me feel ALIVE!

As an example, I enjoy biking as a form of exercise. With the advancement of technology, I hooked my bike up with my smartphone and wireless speaker to enjoy a personal spin class workout with my favorite tunes playing for 90 minutes or so (that’s when speaker charge dies) a few days per week. It’s my current “go to” cardio routine where I add in flexibility exercises for good measure. It is so much fun doing high-intensity interval training with the music pumpin’ and me jumpin’ outside in the fresh air! This gets me to my last habit-forming tip from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. He maintains that “If you want to increase the odds that a behavior will occur, then you need to make it attractive.” In this case, doing cardio on my bike like a spin class is attractive to me and makes it irresistible.

There are other risk factors for diabetes, but I’ll touch on only one of them before closing.  SMOKING. In the early 60’s when the U.S. Surgeon General reported that cigarette smoking causes cancer, I never saw Johnny Washington with another cigarette dangling from his mouth.  He quite cold turkey and as a result, when I was dumb enough to start, I realized that I had been dumb ad promptly quit cold turkey as well.  Again, I credit this to my Dad’s example.

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In summary, we as Black men must be the change and model healthy behaviors to our kids, grandkids, family, and community. Eventually if everyone commits to it, we’ll have better health outcomes and reverse decades of poor health. We also must break free from parts of our culture that we never had the opportunity to define, but was forced upon us such as some ‘traditional’ foods and ways we prepare them to some of our fears towards the medical community. We are in charge of our bodies, and we are armed with knowledge.

In my next installment I will cover an aspect that is uniquely ours – male prostate health. And yes, Johnny Washington and I will have some experiences to share about that too.

By Jay Washington

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mixed-greens-chowder?utm_source=emailshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-recipe&utm_content=20220124