Heart-Healthy Diet Tips for Soul Food and Comfort Food
Cardiologist David Anstey, MD, discusses why soul food and comfort food may affect heart health, and shares heart-healthy tips.
When you search heart-healthy recipes online, you might not always see the comfort food of your own family represented in the results. Often, nutrition advice caters to a white and middle-class audience. Sure, people of all races can eat kale, quinoa, and salmon. However, Black Americans should not have to choose between abandoning their family’s favorite foods and taking care of their heart.
“This is the way I remember my grandmother's recipes. This is the way I can enjoy my mother's recipes, and it's not something that I particularly plan to get rid of or to abandon. I want to maintain those memories,” says David Anstey, MD, cardiologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
- D. Edmund Anstey MD, MPHD. Edmund Anstey, MD, MPH, is a cardiologist practicing in New York City.
References
American Heart Association. (2018). Southern diet could be deadly for people with heart disease.
National Lipid Association. (n.d.). Heart-healthy eating Southern style.
UpToDate. (2022). Overview of primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.