Soul Food as Medicine: How Jonell Nash Redefined Black Public Health  

Decades before public health experts argued for culturally grounded nutrition education, Jonell Nash, the longtime food editor of Essence magazine, advocated for soul food as a form of medicine—work that remains overlooked in conversations about Black public health today.

As National High Blood Pressure Education Month comes to an end, revisiting Nash’s work is especially urgent, given that 58% of Black Americans live with high blood pressure—one of the highest rates globally. Soul food is often blamed for contributing to this disparity, but Nash offered a different side of the story: soul food as intervention.

At a time when negative stereotypes about soul food were widely circulated, Nash used the pages of Essence, the leading lifestyle magazine for Black women, to challenge them. She developed health-conscious soul food recipes that redefined the cuisine by emphasizing its nutritional value. Nash also traced its journey from West Africa to the shores of southern plantations, where enslaved Africans stewed black-eyed peas and rice varieties that remain central to soul food traditions today.

Nash’s commitment to improving the health of African Americans through nutrient-rich soul food reverberates in the broader food as medicine movement.

As a professor of African American Studies and an expert in Black food history, I consider Nash’s public health work to be a vital part of the story and development of soul food in America. Long before she entered journalism, Nash learned the art of cooking soul food from her parents, Mollie and Willie Nash, Sr., who migrated from northeast Louisiana to Detroit, where she graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in home economics. 

In the dedication of her first cookbook, Essence Brings You Great Cooking, Nash described her parents as “great cooks who taught [her] that the most important ingredient that goes into the pot is a measure of care.” 

It is that spirit of care that motivated Nash to reconsider the preparation of soul food while celebrating its significance in African American history. Traditionally, a soul food diet includes dishes like smothered chicken, cabbage, collard greens, and sweet potatoes, all made with high amounts of salt, saturated fats, and sugar. But this diet has historically been linked to high rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, and heart disease among African Americans, according to Ivan E. Porter II, a nephrologist at Mayo Clinic.

When asked about the soul food diet in a 1994 interview, Nash said, “So much of the diet that’s associated with our tradition, there’s the image that it’s bad for you, the whole soul food negative association. Whereas in actuality, the foods of our tradition are exceptionally healthful. There are certain cooking methods and techniques that we definitely need to move away from.”  

Writing two years later in her follow-up cookbook, Low Fat Soul, Nash wrote: “Our saving grace is that many traditional African American foods are excellent sources of vital nutrients. Cabbage, greens, and other members of this cruciferous family [which includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and kale] are known as anti-cancer vegetables. Sweet potatoes are loaded with beta carotene (vitamin A), and black-eyed peas and other flavorful legumes are loaded with protein and dietary fiber.” 

She concluded: “So the question becomes, how do we lose the health-harming effects and restore the power of our favorite dishes while preserving our time-honored tradition?” 

Inspired by her Aunt Alberta O. Sparks, an early Black home economist who championed low-fat eating long before dietary changes were widely recognized, Nash drew on what I call Black Kitchen Science. This approach is rooted in Black culinary methods that transform the kitchen into a site of systematic improvisation, strategic experimentation, and recipe development. Nash used this method to develop many of her featured recipes, drawing inspiration from her own kitchen and the archives of prominent Black women chefs like Edna Lewis and Leah Chase.

Nash deserves recognition for her innovative perspective on soul food as a crucial element of Black wellness and public health.

Although Nash was not a medical or health expert, her role as a food editor at Essence gave her cultural authority to shape Black women’s views on food, health, and lifestyle. Her culinary work blended Black culture with dietary advice, inspiring a new wave of Black cookbooks that urged readers to rethink and prepare nutrient-rich soul food. Singer and actress Patti LaBelle joined this movement after her diabetes diagnosis in the early 2000s, publishing Patti LaBelle’s Lite Cuisine. Other public figures who took up the cause include Roniece Weaver and Bryant Terry.

As research on culturally appropriate nutrition continues to evolve, Jonell Nash deserves recognition for her innovative perspective on soul food as a crucial element of Black wellness and public health. The Jonell Nash African American Culinary Arts Collection at Wayne State provides a window into the resources that influenced Nash, highlighting the hundreds of books she collected on African American food traditions. 

Although she passed away in 2015, Nash’s commitment to improving the health of African Americans through nutrient-rich soul food reverberates in the broader food as medicine movement. This is seen through the work of organizations like WANDA (Women and Girls Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture), a Black women-led organization that advocates for food traditions that heal Black communities.

The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Public Health Post or Boston University School of Public Health.