Finding Our Way Back to a Healthy Diet and Lifestyle

By Lindiwe Vilakazi | Washington Informer | Word In Black (WIB) – National Nutrition Month, celebrated every year in March,  is a nationwide information and nutritional education campaign encouraging people to make informed and healthy lifestyle and dietary choices.  The 2024 National Nutrition Month theme, “Beyond the Table,” examines food production, farm-to-table, and resources, and Black dietitians are particularly digging into further causes of disparities in healthy nutrition. With Black women leading at disproportionate rates for various chronic illnesses, healthy lifestyle practitioners are using nutritional education and empowerment as a means of improving overall wellness and combating racial and gender health disparities. Across the United States, people are suffering from a multitude of health conditions that are directly impacted by their daily nutritional intake. According to the& Centers for Disease Control and Prevention& (CDC), more than 70% of the sodium consumed by Americans comes from prepared and packaged foods, as sodium can raise risk of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure.& & Further, excess added sugar intake is a key contributor to obesity, a condition that disproportionately burdens African American women and youth.& & The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health& reports that Black...