Joseph Pena



Joseph Pena

6.30.03

Sweet Heart

“Project dances to a new beat”

     Debra Brooks doesn’t just talk the talk.

     Brooks, the project director for the California Black Health Network, practices what she preaches: healthy eating habits and regular activity.

     But, Brooks, the executive director of the Sweet Heart project, a community outreach program promoting higher health standards and education about cardiovascular disease and diabetes in African Americans, doesn’t expect people to radically change their diets and exercise habits.

     “The first thing that comes to mind, when someone hears the word ‘diet’ is ‘I have to punish myself,’” said Brooks. “And when someone hears the word exercise, they think ‘I have to sign up for organized aerobics classes or join a gym.’”

     Brooks says such is not the case with the Sweet Heart Project’s educational and community programs, which simply promote physical activity and better food habits.

     Nationwide, one in three African Americans has high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. A study ending in 1998 named cardiovascular disease as the primary cause of death among African Americans.

     In a baseline survey by the San Diego State University Institute of Public Health, death as a result of heart disease is almost 36 percent higher in African Americans than in whites in the Central San Diego region, which includes San Diego’s south bay.

     The survey reflected one percent of the total population of African Americans in San Diego. The largest concentration of San Diego’s 170,000 African Americans is in Central San Diego.

     Brooks says that environment and culture may affect African Americans’ health.

     “In some cases, environment is just not conducive to physical activity,” said Brooks. “You’re not going to jog in the morning or in the evening in a not safe neighborhood. And it’s easy to walk the dog—it’s a lot harder to walk three kids.”

     Also, Brooks said, a “diet” does not complement the cultural food African Americans consume.

     “Diet and ‘soul food’ just don’t go,” said Brooks. “There’s a way to get your greens though and still have the food that you’re accustomed to eating.”

     Sweet Heart’s biannual newsletter highlights recipes that are healthy and similar to the kinds of foods African Americans are accustomed to eating.

     In terms of exercise, playing with your children and doing leg lifts or jogging in place while watching television are just some of the suggestions Brooks offers for increased physical activity.

     The Sweet Heart project began in 2000 and was developed by the California Black Health Network with a four-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The California Endowment.

     The project is one of 35 programs associated with the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 Initiative, which proposes action to wipe out health disparities by 2010.

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