Soul and Fast Food
Courtesy of Frederick D. Opie
From the 1970s through the early 1980s, the East had been at the center of black lower caste grassroots culture and political life in central Brooklyn. Self-determination and a disciplined mind and body had been an essential part of its ideology. In the organizations periodical, Black News, it published a natural food column and the virtues of vegetarianism, medicinal herbs, nutrient rich food, recipes, food co-ops, and more. For example the East described soul food as generally unhealthy. He also held the view that neither is sugar and salt filled fast food something you want to be eating. Soul and fast food have been shown to increase the risk of developing heart disease, cancer, strokes, and diabetes. Rural Africans rarely suffered from diseases that plague our communities because corporations did not control their food system.
