Black Americans Ditch Meat – and Stereotypes
A Vegetarian Resource Group poll indicates about 3% of the nation's adult black population was vegetarian or vegan in 2016, and 32% sometimes or always opted for meatless meals – no red meat, fish or poultry – when eating out.
JOSEPH P. WILLIAMS: ‘A back-to-the-future cultural and lifestyle shift that has increasingly taken root among black Americans: healthy, plant-focused eating. Vegetarian or vegan – part-time or full-time – the list of participants reads like a who’s who of black culture, from NBA stars Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan to the Rev. Al Sharpton, actor Samuel L. Jackson and the late activist Dick Gregory. Even superstar entertainers Beyonce and Jay-Z have been described as “vegan curious”…
“The veganism movement has grown over the last several years,” says Tracye Lynn McQuirter, a nutritionist, author of the book “By Any Greens Necessary,” and editor of the “African American Vegan Starter Guide.” McQuirter – who gave up meat 32 years ago – says she has “definitely” seen a spike in African Americans embracing a plant-based diet…
Although data is difficult to come by, a Vegetarian Resource Group poll indicates about 3% of the nation’s adult black population was vegetarian or vegan in 2016, and 32% sometimes or always opted for meatless meals – no red meat, fish or poultry – when eating out. Those statistics upend the dominant narrative: that going meatless or eliminating animal products entirely from one’s diet is a white-people thing, relegated to aging hippies, militant animal rights activists, big-city hipsters or rich progressives…
Experts say plant-based diets are common across the African diaspora. Religious group the Black Hebrew Israelites follow a vegan diet, while the Nation of Islam backs vegetarianism – former NOI leader Elijah Muhammad linked abstention from meat with racial nationalism and eschewed Southern soul food and its links to slavery, according to an article in the University of Mississippi’s Study the South journal’. SOURCE…
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