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Healthful Living With Soul: A Miami Native and Orlando-Based Dietitian Will Offer Advice on Health and Nutrition for Black Women at an Expo Today

Posted on: Saturday, 10 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Andrea Robinson, The Miami Herald

Jun. 10--Miami native and Orlando-based dietitian Roniece Weaver is on a mission -- to educate black women about staying healthy -- and is bringing a her traveling health and lifestyle expo on fitness to South Florida today.

The daylong series of workshops called Sisters Take Charge opens at 10 a.m. at the Signature Grand in Davie. It offers information on health, fitness and relaxation, medical screenings, diet, cooking demonstrations and other exhibits.

Weaver -- who a decade ago designed the Soul Fool Pyramid, an Afrocentric version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guide to daily food portions and nutrition -- wants expo visitors to let go of their worries and focus on their own well-being.

It's something she says most black women rarely choose.

"Black women put everyone else first. We wait until we're so beat up and tore down before we finally see a doctor," said Weaver, who embarked on a career dedicated to nutrition after growing up in a Brownsville home whose fare had few components: meat and starch. Her father was diagnosed with diabetes.

"I never saw green on my plate until I left home," said Weaver, 45.

Many of the Sisters Take Charge workshops spin off the Soul Food Pyramid, which Weaver and colleagues at Hebni Nutrition Consultants in Orlando created in 1996. The pyramid was revised last year to coincide with a federal revision in nutritional requirements.

The federal guidelines are used by education administrators to help shape school lunches and by health professionals to provide dietary advice for their patients.

Weaver, executive director of the nonprofit Hebni, designed the pyramid to help white nutritionists grab the attention of black men and women who ignored their advice.

For example, the pyramid encourages large amounts of whole grains and vegetables. But it also takes note of foods that are traditional on a black dinner table -- such as chitterlings, pork neck bones and fat back. Those foods are listed under fats and oils, which Weaver warns should be used sparingly.

John Webster, director of public affairs with the USDA Center for Nutrition, Policy and Promotion in Washington, D.C., said the agency had not examined Weaver's version and could not comment on it.

"I've seen articles appearing on Soul Food Pyramid. That's the only thing I've heard about it," Webster said. "There's no way to know scientifically. From a health perspective we haven't done any research in that regard."

The pyramid wins approval from Dr. David Brown, a physician and professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine who is working on a cookbook about food and nutrition in Overtown.

Brown praised the structure, noting that it emphasizes exercise as a first step to weight loss.

"That's probably the most important thing," Brown said. "She's stayed with the national guidelines. I think she's done a very good job."

Laura Powell of Miami plans to attend the expo and is encouraging her friends to do so. She's in good health for a 70-something retiree and wants to stay that way.

"So far I've been fortunate in having pretty good health. I want to keep that going," Powell said. "The program covers so many health measures. . . . It's a wonderful program."

More organizations are focused on bringing heart-healthy messages to people of African descent. Compared with whites, blacks are more likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease.

Late last year, the NAACP -- the nation's oldest civil rights group -- launched a $1.5 million education campaign with NitroMed, the maker of a controversial heart medicine, to promote better health habits and access to medical care for blacks in the United States.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Miami Herald

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