It is late July in Jackson Square. Within the historic park, the lively Preservation Hall Jazz band feverishly plays quintessential New Orleans Jazz, that beautiful mixture of brass band marches, French Quadrilles, ragtime, blues, bebop, and improvisation. Forceful human breath moves through the trumpet’s brass skeleton, eventually escaping from the circular bell, creating rapid and fluid sound—harmonic and complex. The drums are militant, resounding palpitations. And the trombone produces awkward and gregarious melodies. Across from which, a crowd of New Orleanians fervently dance, a dance very liberal in movement, West African in its origins. It seems as though they have just been released from harsh, human bondage. This is freedom, liberty, and pleasure in its purest form.
Over the decades, New Orleanians have been seen as hedonists and pleasure-seekers, aggressive in their pursuit of human happiness—whether it is through music, art, dance, sex, or food. But are pleasures simply subjective mental states involving happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria? Not surprising, it can be more complex than this. For an act to be pleasurable, it must not only be pleasurable for a short period time, in the fleeting moment, but also in the long run. The act’s outcome cannot, under any circumstance, be suffering. Such a definition is utilitarian and consequentialist at heart. The Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus defined the highest pleasure as the “absence of suffering” and pleasure itself as “freedom from pain in the body and freedom from turmoil in the soul” (STA). Such a tradition as New Orleans dancing, if done regularly, is not only pleasurable in the moment but also in the long-run for human health, for it reduces stress, increases muscle tone and coordination, lowers risk of coronary heart disease, decreases blood pressure, increases blood flow to the brain, minimizes weight, and lowers risk of dementia. Unfortunately, New Orleans has a certain tradition, which seems pleasurable at first glance but unpleasant when studied closely; that is—New Orleans’ eating and drinking habits.
In health, New Orleans is not an anomaly in Louisiana. It actually fits perfectly in the state. For in 2008, Louisiana was ranked 49th, Mississippi being the 50th, as the unhealthiest state in America. The state suffers from high obesity, smoking and premature death rates, high child poverty, infant mortality, and cancer deaths. But health in Louisiana is a larger, more depressing conversation for another day. As the national healthcare debate rages on in the U.S., the debate mainly focuses on health insurance and the economics of private and public options. In the U.S. as in New Orleans, poor health can be caused by economic status, poor health insurance coverage, unorganized and out-of-date healthcare systems, and lack of education on proper nutrition. Of course, for New Orleans, Katrina made matters worse for its healthcare system. But this debate is missing a key argument, and that is the argument for preventive medicine and healthier eating habits. Our ancestors knew the healing power of natural foods, using them to combat all sorts of maladies. It is only now, centuries later, that the therapeutic benefits of certain vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices can be scientifically proven. New Orleanians consistently make themselves sick by eating unhealthy food. Statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation clearly illustrate New Orleans’ health challenges. Chronic conditions are widespread: “41% of adults have hypertension, diabetes, asthma or other breathing problems, as well as other chronic health conditions. The most prevalent chronic conditions are hypertension or high blood pressure (24%), diabetes or high blood sugar (11%), and asthma or other breathing problems (9%)” (Kaiser 4). The low reported rate of obesity may reflect the lack of discussion of obesity by physicians with their patients. Next, mental health challenges are also evident for adults, with about one in twelve adults (8%) ranking their mental health as fair or poor. “About one in twenty adults report symptoms of depression (6%) or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (5%)” (Kaiser 6). The health of elderly citizens is even direr. “The elderly in the area have high rates of health problems, as is the case nationally—two thirds (66%) of those over 65 in the area are living with a chronic condition or disability” (Kaiser 9). Prior to Katrina, Louisiana had some of the poorest health statistics in the country, with high rates of infant mortality, chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes, and AIDS cases. Today, there are large disparities in health status for minorities; the African American population had higher mortality rates from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes than whites. Lastly, “one in five households with children (19%) reported that a child in the home had a chronic disease or disability, which equates to 6% of all households in the Greater New Orleans area” (Kaiser 13). Respondents most commonly identified asthma and other breathing problems as a chronic condition affecting a child in the household (10% of households with children reported at least one child with this type of problem).
According to a BRFSS study done in 2006, 5% of adults currently have asthma; 10% have been told they had asthma at some point in their lives. Moreover, “as classified by the Body Mass Index (BMI), 29.8% of adults in the New Orleans area are overweight and 31.5% are obese” (BRFSS 1). Herein lies the main culprits: “Only 21% of New Orleans adults consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables, and 32.7% did not participate in any physical activity in the past month” (BRFSS 2). Only 24.2% of adults surveyed report achieving the currently recommended levels of physical activity. And among adults in the New Orleans area, 20.2% are current smokers.
In referencing an YRBS study in 2005, New Orleans students are slightly more overweight than other students in the United States, but much less likely to perceive themselves as overweight. Also, they were less likely to engage in healthy weight loss activities, such as exercising or eating fewer calories, but more likely to try unhealthy methods, such as fasting for more than 24 hours, vomiting, or using pills, powders, liquids or laxatives. In fact, New Orleans students tried unhealthy weight loss methods more than students in any other city completing the YRBS. New Orleans ranked 9th of 17 cities completing the YRBS for daily fruit and vegetable consumption. Not surprising, “only 73.1% had eaten any fruit during the previous week, and 19.2% of those surveyed report achieving the currently recommended levels of physical activity, compared to 35.8% of students surveyed nationally” (YRBS 1).
Unhealthy eating in New Orleans is not simply caused by a lack of will power or lack of education. Most of the population knows how unhealthy their eating habits are. So why do they continue to behave in this manner, then? Many New Orleanians are bombarded by a variety of food cues and stimuli around them. Their behavior is being conditioned, and they are driven to eat unhealthily. A cue could be the smell or sight of food, or the elegant and enticing beauty of a well-lit, architectured French Quarter restaurant. Undoubtedly, it stimulates the brain. Every time one eats this food, one strengthens his or her neural circuitry. A part of the brain activates, and arousal takes place unconsciously. When one becomes conscious that the food is unhealthy, one begins to have an inner-debate, combating the neural circuitry that has already been laid down, which knows how tasteful certain unhealthy foods are. Sadly, this inner-debate increases the reward value in the food. Dopamine, a brain chemical, helps focus the mind on the most salient stimuli in the environment. It could be alcohol, tobacco, or sex, but for most of the population, the most salient, readily-available and socially acceptable stimuli is food. At the core of this food are fat, sugar, and salt, which stimulate one to eat more and more. Our taste buds are hardwired to the brain and fat, sugar, and salt stimulate the receptors in our mouth. It keeps us going back for more. Sugar and fat make the food more multi-sensory, more potent. New Orleans has made sugar, fat, and salt available 24/7 in large portions. Why is this socially acceptable? Cigarettes were successful in the 50’s, for they were seen as glamorous and sexy, as a social norm. Recently, society has changed the social norm of cigarettes, making them a negative salient image. Society can do the same thing for unhealthy eating, which can be just as dangerous as tobacco. But even more dangerous, parents have instilled this dangerous neural-circuitry in their children. Now, children as young as 10 years of age are acquiring Type II diabetes. Fortunately, one can add new learning and neural circuitry on top of that old neural circuitry to change eating habits.
Nourishing our bodies should not simply be about pleasure but respect for nature and our existence. New Orleans’ music, art, and dance have always been about freedom of expression and pleasure. They are beautiful and healthy cultural activities, highly celebratory in their appearance. I have always seen New Orleans’ free and improvised dancing as a way of purging the troubles in the world, by letting loose and celebrating the beautiful elements in life. Recently, I am beginning to interpret this dancing not as a cathartic technique but as a masking and repressing technique, hiding the true reality of the extreme challenges New Orleans faces, especially in health. The New Orleans dancer will be free when he or she articulates the oppression and dire consequences of New Orleans’ unhealthy, suicidal eating habits.
Works Cited
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Steps to a Healthier New Orleans.
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