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Soul Food Research Paper

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Soul food is the heart and soul of American cuisine in the South. There’s nothing like biting into warm crunchy fried chicken, or scooping into thick and creamy baked mac and cheese on a Sunday afternoon surrounded by friends and family. The South is known for this traditional home cooked meal, but the people who pioneered it experienced a horrific and tragic history. Black Americans endured hardship after hardship in this country starting with slavery. Black Americans were enslaved during the 1500’s-1800’s, and in an attempt to survive, they took what scraps of meat they were thrown and fixed it up into something not only edible but delicious. Slowly but surely this struggle came to be a part of the rich culture African Americans possess. …show more content…

The certain aspects of their culture -such as soul food- derived from this time period as a binding force, and surviving together created a bond much stronger than anything seen at that time. With any hardship a community of support is the only thing to get a person through each day, and this was a hardship nobody but those involved could ever understand. This food they cooked unified them then and continues to unify them now through wonderfully seasoned food and a family atmosphere like no other. In the 2004 documentary Soul Food Junkies Byron Hurt shows the eloquence soul food has had on defining Black culture and that no matter where a person ventures in the South they’d find family and a good meal. Hurt shows family, not just through blood but through food, an element of life enjoyed by all those around whether friend or family. In Soul Food Junkies Hurt explains the importance of soul food to Black tradition and the life complications that can come with loving that food too much. Soul food is indeed an essential part of Black culture and does lead to significant amount of damage to a person's …show more content…

They never realized it was bad for them so when it started to be a problem, when their dietary needs were finally fulfilled why would they worry about their health? Soul food originated from the days of slavery and has been a driving force is keeping african american culture alive and proud. Soul food has gone from being a substance vital to existence, to a comfort food during the fight for civil rights in the sixties, to what it is now. Soul food is now a statement of African American culture. It is eaten with pride, something nobody can never take away from these driven and wonderful people. It is a reminder that when they were treated less than human and given the scraps and garbage from their abominable keepers that they rose above and turned something that was thought to be wasteful into a delicacy better than anything their keepers could ever imagined. They turned their history into a badge and continue to eat and do as they please, even with the risks it puts on their health. Soul food may cause complications, but compared to the complications it was born from, type II diabetes and pancreatic cancer cannot compare. The health complications and tremendous important role soul food plays in the Black community is seen and confirmed with any and every article, museum, and scholarly journal an individual can

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