Greetings Everyone,

It's spring time and it is an excellent time for community and county organizations to hold special health events for their communities. Well, I was asked to be the Keynote Speaker at a great community event in Wayne County, North Carolina. The event was held at Mount Olive College and it was called the "2009 Wayne Minority Community Empowerment Forum." The theme was "Health, Wealth and Wisdom."

Organized by Wayne County Minority Health Coordinator, Ms Rovonda Freeman with assistance from Brenda Bass (former graduate student in the MPH program at ECU and one of my students) and many other staff & community folks in collaboration with the Health Director -- Mr. James Roosen -- of Wayne County, this one-day event addressed a wide array of serious health and medical issues affecting communities of color in this area. They also had a comedy show at the end of the event! Local celebrities and radio station -- "Q97.7" were there to entertain and interview participants. After my talk, I was interviewed by one of the radio personalities!

The turnout was a complete success. People and families of all ages and background attended this very special inaugural event. Local and state dignitaries were present including North Carolina State Senator Don Davis.

As Keynote Speaker, I was asked to talk about health disparities and how we as individuals and experts can do something about it. My talk was entitled, "How to Solve and Eliminate Health Disparities." I had alot of fun presenting my information to the audience and the audience was outstanding!! I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and interaction with all the community members. I believe that they responded well to the major themes of my talk which was:

• "Culture"


• "Cultural Competency"

Again, this was a great community event designed to raise awareness of health, social, medical, and cultural issues in the county. These are the type of culturally competent events that makes a difference in the community!! It only takes one community event to move a community into a healthier conscious and healthier pattern!!

POSTER PRESENTATION AT NIH SUMMIT: THE SCIENCE OF ELIMINATING HEALTH DISPARITIES











Greetings Everyone,






During this past week, I participated in the NIH Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities with a poster presentation highlighting my new online graduate course at East Carolina University -- "Ethnic Health & Health Disparities." The title of my presentation was:

• Using Technology for Teaching Health Disparities

You can download my poster presentation from the link above!

This new online graduate course uses the latest technology to assist health professionals and public health administrators in solving health issues in eastern North Carolina and the United States. Students used the university's Blackboard software to not only hear and view my audio podcast and webcam lectures but they also responded to the discussion board and chatroom sessions online. In addition, culturally competent reports from the National Institutes of Health were also placed online for specific diseased-focused ethnic health and health disparity issues.

The success of this new online course has not only enabled health professionals and public health administrators to acquire new public health skill sets that will assist them in working with and developing culturally competent health programs but it also helped to create a new online 12-credit graduate certificate program in Ethnic Health and Health Disparities at East Carolina University.

Finally, this NIH conference was sponsored and organized by the National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NCMHD). Interestingly, I worked at NCMHD as a Health Scientist Administrator from 2001-2004 and completely enjoyed the opportunity to work with this NIH federal health agency when it first started. In fact, I met several of my former colleagues at the Summit including the Director Dr. John Ruffin. It was a great reunion and they made me feel as though as I was still apart of NCMHD.

Presentation at Harvard University!

Greetings Everyone,

This past weekend, I had the pleasure to be a panelist in one of the sessions of an excellent conference entitled, "The Fourth Annual Kennedy School of Government Black Policy Conference" at Harvard University. I joined two other esteemed panelists in the session called "Campaign to Improve our Health: African Americans and Obesity."

Each panelist spent approximately 10 -15 minutes presenting their research and later we took questions from the audience. During my presentation, I highlighted the major issues related to my 2006 book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet." I primarily emphasized how culture greatly influences our food choices and that we need to continue developing culturally competent programs such as my New Black Cultural Diet (http://www.newblackculturaldiet/.)

The other panelists included Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika and Dr. Ian Smith. The audience asked a number of excellent questions and it looked like we had a lively interaction during question and answer time.

I have included a photo of the panelists along with our moderator, Dr. C. Frank Igwe and Mr. Sam Sanders - organizer of this panel session and a photo of one of the buildings in the JFK School of Government complex where we presented our session.

All in all, this was the best conference that I was ever apart of. The scholarly environment of Harvard University along with the scholarly professionals who organized this conference made this a ONE OF A KIND CONFERENCE THAT APPRECIATED AND CELEBRATED DIVERSITY!!

Greetings Everyone,

Yesterday, I presented my talk on "Food Choice & Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet" at a community health event in eastern North Carolina. The event was titled, "Working For Healthy Communities," and I was one of the 5 speakers to talk about health and medical issues related to diabetes in the African American community. This event occurred at the Zion Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Pollocksville, North Carolina.

I had alot of fun meeting community members at this event and listenting to the other guest speakers. The church and community made everyone feel very welcome and at home.

In my particular talk, I emphasized how our African American cultural eating traditions and cultural health patterns must be understood and respected while also finding culturally competent strategies to modify these long standing traditions. I believe the community members enjoyed the talk and of course I loved presenting it in a much more "lively" way for the community!

In addition to the presentation, two of my former ECU graduate students and now public health professionals who took my classes were the organizers of this event for Jones County Health Department. Here is our picture along with others of the event.

New Course at ECU - "Ethnic Health & Health Disparities"

I am looking forward to teaching my brand new Distance Education course - Ethnic Health and Health Disparities - MPH 6008-- because it will provide students with graduate training the abilities and knowledge to address national and local ethnic health and health disparities issues.

During the course, students will focus on accomplishing the following objectives:

• Identify and assess the major health issues associated with specific ethnic and health disparity populations in the state and country.
• Describe ethnic health and health disparity issues, including unique and important features.
• Apply principles and strategies derived from public health and medical anthropology toward planning, implementing, and evaluating specific ethnic health and health disparities intervention programs.

Today, I presented my book's topic at East Carolina University for the Office of Institutional Diversity's program entitled, " Intersections of Culture & Health." On the program, there were two other faculty at ECU who presented their research studies highlighting the importance of culture and health.

Although the audience was a bit smaller than anticipated, the questions from the audience were very interesting and intriguing. In fact, I noticed there is still alot of interest in the issue of African American preferred "Body Images" and how this influences whether a person perceives themself as overweight or just "thick," or "full-figured" (maintaining a healthy weight). Indeed, there is a growing interest in the issues of body image and I believe that I will have more to say about this issue next year! (hint, hint).

In the meantime, if you want to hear my thoughts on African American body image, feel free to download my Podcast on my website -- http://www.newblackculturaldiet.com/

It was a delight to present my book's major topics to the audience and it was refreshing to reconnect with the faculty at ECU.

Interview on Journey to Wellness Show with Dr. Mary Harris


A couple of days ago, I completed a telephone interview with Dr. Mary Harris -- host of the CNN Radio Network show called Journey to Wellness. The Journey to Wellness.com show specializes in the production and dissemination of health care information targeted to ethnic minorities. The founder, President & CEO of Journey to Wellness -- Dr. Mary Harris -- states on her website that, "our goal is to inform, inspire, and enable African Americans to take charge of their health."

I wholeheartedly agree with her show and enjoyed the opportunity to share my book -- Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet and the relevant issues of -- The New Black Cultural Diet -- with her audience.

I believe my interview and adjoining article will appear on her website in August. So check out the website and show -- Journey to Wellness (www.journeytowellness.com) and let me know what you think.

As always, send me an email at: administrator@newblackculturaldiet.com or visit all the new happenings with the New Black Cultural Diet at: www.newblackculturaldiet.com

Presenting to the "Pediatric Healthy Weight Forum" at East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine

Earlier today, I presented my book's topic -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet," for the physicians, faculty, interns and health care professionals associated with the Pediatric Healthy Weight Forum at East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, NC.. It has been one year since my book was published (May 2006) and I am still delighted to see the interest in my book's topic!

Although it was a relatively small crowd attending, my talk was on satelite to another campus here in North Carolina. Yet despite the turnout during this summer event, the questions from the audience were very good because it focused on how to implement many of my suggestions from the book to individual African American patients -- particularly kids and adolescents.

My overall suggestion from the several questions highlighted the importance of "taking time to get the input and feedback from your individual patient and working around his/her preferences of body image, food selections, food preparation and exercise/physical fitness." Oftentimes, the perspective of the individual African American patient is slightly different from the health care provider thereby we must be respectful of their beliefs, preferences and sociocultural conditions and attempt to work from that orientation.

As with all of my presentations, I enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to share the major themes of my book to another audience that has great interests in this area of medical and health care as it relates to the African American population.

Presentation at the 2007 NC AHEC Future Leaders in Health Care Conference

It was a delight and pleasure to present as a plenary speaker at NC AHEC Future Leaders Health Conference on May 19th in Durham, North Carolina. The audience consisted of 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th graders who excelled in academics throughout the state of North Carolina and those who have an interest in the health care field. There were over 200 students in the gymnasim of North Carolina Central University this day.

My session was entitled, "Health Promotion and Disease Prevention," so I presented the major themes from my book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet." The young audience was very receptive to the major themes of my presentation and even the adults assisting the students during this day asked questions and gave their own personal stories about health, fitness, dieting, food preferences and body images. In fact, several adults said that we as African Americans can obviously do more for ourselves when we decide to do for ourselves. I wholeheartedly agreed.

Overall, the event was very positive, the energy was upbeat and I appreciated being apart of this conference at North Carolina Central University. I want to thank the organizers for inviting me early in January to be one of the plenary speakers of this event.

Check out my picture immediately after giving the talk in the gymnasium.

On May 4th, I was invited to be the Keynote Speaker at East Carolina University's Master of Public Health Graduate Recognition Ceremony. The invitation came from the Masters Degree students and I was completely honored and surprised of their invitation. In fact, I was over-joyed yet uncertain as to whether I could deliver the type of speech that they deserved.

Although I initially did not know what "themes" that I wanted to leave the graduates with, it all came clear after a few days of contemplating my speech. My major themes of this Keynote Address were:

• Leadership
• A New Public Health
• Follow Your Dream

Of course, before I highlighted these themes in my Keynote Address, I had to do something out-of the ordinary in a Keynote Address. What did I do? -- well, I brought in a couple of characters that I use in very special situations to express how they feel about a topic. Those characters are actually me -- playing the role of a couple very expressive individuals who have totally different personalities, language, and lifestyles. Fortunately, the students and audience enjoyed the characters and I felt relived!

Congratulations again to the 2007 MPH East Carolina University Masters of Public Health Graduates!

Presentation on the "New Black Cultural Diet" for Journalists meeting at North Carolina A and T - (Greensboro, NC)

Two days ago, I traveled to Greensboro, NC and visited the campus of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. It was my first time at NC A and T and I had a very enjoyable time before, during and after my presentation. I was invited to campus and the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies to present my book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet," to a number of renowned journalists across the country in NC A and T's Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies.

I didn't know what to expect with this type of presentation, but it went very well. During and after my presentation, they asked a number of investigative questions and I believed that I answered all of their questions particularly about the New Black Cultural Diet (www.newblackculturaldiet.com). In fact, several of the journalists indicated that they will contact me later for follow-up interviews!

After my presentation, I joined the journalists for an Awards Luncheon entitled, "Vernon Jarrett Medical for Journalistic Excellence." The awards luncheon honored the late Mr. Vernon Jarrett - the nation's most prominent commentator on race relations and African American history. The honorees of this year's award were:

• Mr. Les Payne,
• Mr. Jeff Koinange
• Mr. Byron Pitts

I had a very, very enjoyable time at the luncheon! I felt very much connected to many of the cultural issues highlighted during the awards luncheon. This awards luncheon was well presented and timely because of all the cultural African American issues in the media now!

I also have to give special recognition to the individual responsible for organizing the Awards Luncheon, Directing the Institute for Advance Journalism Studies at NC A and T and for Inviting me to give a talk to the journalists -- Mr. Dewayne Wickman! Thanks!! I also want to thank all of his assistants for helping me to give my talk!

Presentation at The 3rd Annual Jean Mills Health Symposium - Greenville, North Carolina - February 9th, 2007

It was my pleasure to participate in a new annual event associated with East Carolina University and Eastern AHEC entitled -- "The Jean Mills Health Symposium." This was the 3rd annual event which honors the memory of Jean Mills. Keeping the tradition continuing, Mr. Amos T. Mills, III sponsors the event in collaboration with East Carolina University, Pitt Memorial Hospital Foundation and Eastern AHEC. The symposium helps to address current health issues affecting African Americans and Hispanic Populations in eastern North Carolina. The symposium is designed to:

1. Identify current issues in health disparities research;
2. Describe current ECU research evidence in health disparities;
3. Discuss the future directions of health disparities research at ECU;
4. Provide networking opportunities for researchers, practitioners and community who are interested in reducing health disparities; and
5. Apply health disparities research in practice to reduce health disparities and improve health services.

As Mr. Amos Mills, III emphasized in his message to the audience -- "We need to solve the problem of obesity.....because this relates to all of the major chronic health problems affecting the African American population.... it is a human problem."

There were several faculty presenters from East Carolina University including the Keynote Speaker -- Dr. James Johnson -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In the early afternoon, I gave my presentation during the session entitled, "The Impact of Obesity and Nutrition." This presentation focused on the major cultural health issues related to my book entitled, "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet." I talked about how African Americans generally perceive health, body image, food, dieting, physical fitness, and exercise. Additionally, I presented my cultural health plan -- The New Black Cultural Diet -- to establish a lifestyle strategy that will be both effective and manageable.

The major objectives of my presentation were to:

1. Provide health disparity data on overweight and obesity issues related to African Americans;
2. Highlight one of my research studies showing the disparity in the African American population;
3. Present qualitative data on African Americans' perspective related to body image, food preferences, and exercise/physical fitness.
4. Engage the audience to view and understand these cultural health issues from the perspective of the African American.

I had a great time presenting to this audience and they were very receptive to the major themes from my book. In fact, several participants shared some very insightful cultural health information on how they are individually modifying and changing their dietary pattern and lifestyle pattern in order to live a better quality of life! This was very rewarding to hear and I enjoyed their participation immensely!

That's the latest from this Medical Anthropologist!! As always, Follow Your Dream!!

Sign Your Purchased Book - "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America"

Greetings Everyone,

Now that my website -- The New Black Cultural Diet -- (www.newblackculturaldiet.com) has been officially launched and press releases have been distributed nationally, I want to make sure that anyone who would like a signed copy of my new book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet" -- you can contact me through Amazon.com, this blog, or the New Black Cultural Diet website. I will be more than willing to sign your book and send it back to you.

So if anyone would like a signed copy of my book, send me an email (feedback@newblackculturaldiet.com) and I can give you the address where to send the book.

Look forward to signing your purchased book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet."

Book Review from Greenville, North Carolina - The Daily Reflector

On August 28, Greenville's Daily Reflector printed an article on my book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet." The book review was conducted by Erica Plouffe Lazure.

Here are a few comments about my book:

The reviewer states, "In his book, "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet," Eric J. Bailey examines social and cultural issues of food and obesity. "People want to make recipes exactly the same way it was years ago" Bailey said. "But you can use the same recipe your grandparents used and continue to keep that connection to them. You're honoring them by making the same dish but in a healthier way."

If you want to read the entire review (which I recommend), check it out at the following link:

Professor's Book Touts Food Choice

Book Review from Chicago Sun-Times


Greetings Everyone,

Yesterday, I just learned that the Chicago Sun-Times book reviewer, Maureen Jenkins, published her review on my book, "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet."

She specifically says,
"In Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet, medical anthropologist and professor Eric J. Bailey makes the case that blacks can maintain their rich culinary culture while managing their diets and controlling the dysfunction that come from being overweight."

"In Bailey's "new cultural approach," he seeks to develop "interventions" based upon how African Americans perceive the whole health and weight issue - and how they can draw upon their own cultural resources to effect postive change. This last chapter feels like a self-help to me, with Bailey speaking directly to readers and imploring them to buy into his perspective. He doesn't offer calorie counts or exercise suggestions; he's counting on readers to seek out methods that work best for them."

If you would like to read the entire review (which I recommend), please go to the following link:


Food for Thought
http://www.suntimes.com/output/books/cst-books-blackfoods20.html


Please feel free to send me your review of my book.

Book Signing at Barnes and Noble - Greenville, NC.

On July 20th, I was a part of a community event at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Greenville, North Carolina that celebrated local North Carolina authors. Along with myself, there were other authors such as LaDena Renwick Tilley (A Woman Called Job), Worth Forbes (From the Ground Up) and L. Diane Wolfe (James). All of us gave a brief overview of our books and then addressed questions from the great audience in the store.

A few of my colleagues from the Anthropology Department and the Public Health program at East Carolina University were in the audience as well as friends from the College of Arts and Communications. Finally, of course my wife, Gloria was present taking pictures.

Book Signing in Wilberforce, Ohio!

On July 2, 2006, I received a surprised book signing event in my home town of Wilberforce, Ohio. My mother organized the entire event. Family members, community members and church members all attended this event and it looked like everyone enjoyed it.

I signed all of the books, enjoyed greeting everyone and expressing my thanks for their hometown support for my latest book -- Food Choice and Obesity in Black America.

Additionally, the local newspaper -- Xenia Daily Gazette -- ran a feature story highlighting this local book signing event.

This event was a major success and I am glad that all family members and friends came.

Book Reviews from Ebony Magazine and the Arizona Republic Newspaper
on my new book, "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet."

Ebony Magazine
2006 July Issue


“The fact that African Americans are developing more weight-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancers suggests that we are not connecting the two issues—overweight and chronic disease,” writes medical anthropologist Eric J. Bailey, author of Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: Creating a New Cultural Diet. “So we are not developing long-term solutions for these issues of overweight and obesity in our communities.” (page 80)

Arizona Republic Newspaper
June 14, 2006


“Not only is obesity more prevalent among Black Americans than other ethnic groups, Blacks also are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And they are more likely to experience higher rates of serious complications from the disease, such as blindness, amputation and end-stage renal disease. There are many cultural reasons for the higher rates of obesity, as Bailey cites in his book, having to do not only with food but also with physical activity.”–Arizona Republic

Welcome,

My name is Eric J. Bailey and I am a Medical Anthropologist. You are probably thinking, "What is a Medical Anthropologist?" A Medical Anthropologist is a person who investigates health, illness, diseases and health care systems from a holistic and comprehensive perspective and attempts to understand these issues from the community's or individual's perspective. In general, the individual's and community's perspective are the key for understanding, working with, and developing any cultural intervention.

My academic degrees are as follows:
1. Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology (B.A.) -- Miami University (Ohio) -- 1980
2. Master's Degree in Anthropology (M.A.) -- Miami University (Ohio) -- 1983
3. Doctorate in Anthropology (Ph.D.) -- Wayne State University (Michigan) -- 1988
4. Master's Degree in Public Health (M.P.H.) -- Emory University (Georgia) -- 1996

I have just completed my new book entitled, "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: An Anthropologist Offers a New Cultural Diet." This new book provides a cultural and holistic analysis of Black American food preferences. I show you how African Americans generally perceive health, body image, food, dieting, physical fitness, and exercise. In fact, my new book offers a new "cultural" diet strategy for us and a way to work together collectively to not only understand this critical health issue but also to start a new cultural lifestyle strategy that will be both effective and manageable for anyone.

You can order my new book through the publisher's website -- Greenwood Publishing or Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com

So I encourage you to take a look at my new book -- "Food Choice and Obesity in Black America: An Anthropologist Offers a New Cultural Diet." Once you read it, let me know what you think about it! There will be more to come!!

Check out my new website: www.newblackculturaldiet.com. It is the follow-up to my new book and it is the best way to learn more about the current issues related to African American diet and fitness.