12 Reasons Why It’s Difficult To “Diet” on a Caribbean Diet!

I think it’s funny how a discussion with about 200 + people from across the region (and those around the world with Caribbean heritage) on why a Caribbean diet works against us (Caribbean people) turns into a “we make the best” (meaning island to island). While I LOVE the feisty way we’re proud of our individual culinary culture, the fact is… as a region we don’t necessarily eat healthy.

Here are the top 12 reasons why a Caribbean diet works against us, from our group discussion (full video below)…

• Our food is just too DELICIOUS (almost forced to eat seconds + see comment about portions below)
• “Clean Your Plate” I grew up hearing my parents say “boi clean yuh plate eh.. it have children starving in other parts of the world” – But I’m FULL!
• Carbs on Carbs! (starch) Take the typical Caribbean soup as an example – flour dumplings, yam, dasheen, cassava, sweet potato, reg potato, eddoes, green banana and even some pasta is added at times. While that may have been ok for our forefathers who worked HARD in the fields.. we simple don’t!
• HEAVY! We need to add some level of balance with light salads and fruits.
• High in sodium. Salted Cod, Salted Pig Tails /Pork, Salted Beef are some prime examples, plus our dependency on those ‘stock cubes’ and packaged soups. Canned corned beef, sardines, salmon etc.. yea loaded with sodium too!
• We LUV Cheese – that addiction to New Zealand Cheddar. No need to say more!
• Fried Foods. On a recent trip to “Debe” (south Trinidad) I noticed that 90% of the street food sold were fried! Across the Caribbean we’ve got a weakness for fried fish, fried chicken, fritters (sweet and savory versions).. shims we even fry our dumplings (flour)!
• Too Much SUGAR! Here are two examples.. 1. We take tamarind, roll it in sugar and we’ve got tamarind balls – something we’ve been eating from the time we could walk. 2. Sugar Cake (called grater cakes on some islands) – SUGAR + Coconut!  Even when we make drinks (punch) with our abundance of tropical fruits, we usually add a ton of sugar and/or sweetened condensed milk to it. Peep the typical Jamaican Carrot Punch or the Peanut Punch (as examples) we love so much across the Caribbean.
• We’re no longer as active as we used to be, we hardly cook at home any longer and we’ve got an invasion of North American fast food establishments setting up shop throughout the Caribbean. And it seems as consumers we can’t get enough, from the long lines I see at these places.
• We don’t practice Portion Size!
•  Our food tend to be VERY high in fat and cholesterol. During a recent dinner with friends at a very popular restaurant “on the boulevard” (Trinidad) I noticed that it was common for the chef to NOT trim the fat off the pork dishes he sent to our table! Chefs – you’ve got a responsibility!
• 3 words – Pesticides + Fertilizers + GMO – don’t be fooled by those brilliant looking fruits and vegetables in the market. I visited a farmer about a month ago and on entry to his garden plot I could hardly breathe! The scent of weed killer and pesticides forced me pull my t shirt over my nose. The barrels where he took water from to water the garden  had used pesticide containers swimming around in there.

I don’t want to give you the impression that all is lost, as I know most of what I mentioned above can be easily corrected. With awareness brings change, and we must demand such change or we risk seeing even more cases of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, obesity and a host of health problems as we’ve already have to deal with in the past 15 years.

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