Black Don't Crack, Part Two: Yes, it does -- if you smoke!

So what did we learn from my recent blog entry Black Don't Crack, Part One? WEAR SUNSCREEN.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: If you want wrinkle-free skin, you have to get all -- and I mean ALL -- toxins and carcinogens out of your life and get physical every day.  Why am I telling you any of this? So when I'm 70 years old, you won't have to wonder why I look like I'm 35 and hound me about it, like my blackness is the reason why it all came together for me. The truth is, yes it is -- and no, it's not.  Melanin is wonderful stuff but none of that matters if I don't take care of it. And that's that.

Here's your next order of business -- and yes, this is even more important than wearing sunscreen all the time: DON'T SMOKE.

Research has proven that smoking wrecks your looks in general but what you probably don't know is that it damages your skin more than the sun, and the sun damages your skin horribly.  Think about it: if you smoke, literally thousands of toxins and carcinogens are pumped through your bloodstream with every puff you take, sending your body into a state of shock with each inhalation.  Please note: carcinogens are defined as any substance that can cause or aggravate cancer. There are over 70 carcinogens in cigarettes -- stuff like formaldehyde (a chemical used to preserve dead bodies), benzene (which is found in pesticides and causes leukemia) and vinyl chloride (a man-made chemical in cigarette filters that used to make plastics). Yummy!

It doesn't matter how many cigarettes you've smoked or how long ago you quit. You can't completely undo the damage you've already caused by smoking, which is why it's a pretty good idea to not smoke in the first place. Cigarettes  cause deep body wrinkles, too. (Yeesh!) Don't be fooled, hipsters -- hookahs are just as toxic as cigarettes. And marijuana is more toxic than either one of them.

Get this: a study has found that when it comes to cigarette-induced skin damage, white people are affected more than black people, and women more than men. (Wow. That kind of explains a lot, now doesn't it.)

I don't smoke. I've never smoked.  I live in a smoke-free home with a non-smoker, so there's no second-hand smoke, either. Visitors who simply must have a cigarette while they're in my home must leave my home because there's no smoking in my apartment.  They are reduced to getting their nicotine fix whilst perched on the front steps, because there's no smoking in my building, either.

Toxins and carcinogens, be gone!

Don't be fooled: If you're a passive smoker -- someone who is subject to second hand smoke -- you're in big trouble, too.

Up next -- Black Don't Crack, Part Three: Yes, it does -- if you drink alcohol!

covering the basics, part 2: how did we get here?

i think the way we eat -- then and now -- varies from region to region and depends a lot on ethnicity, tradition and culture. when i was a kid in south carolina's low country, my great-grandmother always kept a large vegetable garden in her expansive backyard, which was speckled with fruit trees and wild grapes. my great-grandfather, grandfather and uncles hunted and fished seasonally, so there was plenty of fresh seafood and game. my grandmother kept a garden, too. i remember green tomatoes ripening on the kitchen windowsill, her house surrounded with carefully tended plants, gorgeous roses and flowers that bloomed year-round. and rice. rice with almost every meal.

we weren't big on what usually passes as soul food. red rice and roasted oysters and venison were fixtures on our dinner table, not fried chicken with all the fixins. and junk food was hardly an issue.

 it's not that we didn't hit the grocery store for what we needed but when you grow and hunt for most of what you consume, you really don't have to make it to the piggly wiggly every week.  not surprisingly, growing your own food and hunting it down is physically hard work. you try killing a 5 point buck and carrying it around until you get home.

my great-grandmother wasn't the big momma type. she was lean and strong, and so was my grandmother. their husbands weren't overweight, either.  that's not surprising because everybody had work that required hard manual labor. when that was done, they had two or three side jobs that wore them out. my grandfather and my great-grandfather worked in a steel mill for decades. my daddy had a day job and seven -- SEVEN -- union cards.  (joe the plumber, in comparison, doesn't have one.)  daddy never stopped working. when he left this world a few years ago at the age of 92, he was outside working on the house.  there were fun times and happy moments but there was never any room for foolishness. the men and the boys in the family were way too busy being great outdoorsmen, or they were off doing man things like fixing cars.  the women and the girls were keeping house: cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing, knitting. they had their children to discipline and instruct, their work that kept them running, their side jobs and whatever.

 i don't know where some people get this black people are lazy stuff.  the movies? stupid comedians? pop culture? step n. fetchit? people who don't know any black people?

so as it turns out, eating clean means that i'm simply shifting gears and going back to my low country roots. i had to do it a few times to break some bad habits and make it stick. thankfully, it is sticking. the thing is, there are moments in my life when a herculean amount of discipline is required to stay away from a bag of baked cheetos. my great-grandparents didn't have that problem.

this handy little infographic is an interesting snapshot of america's nutritional arc over time. the picture gets much more interesting when you get specific.

Source: visual.ly via Dennis on Pinterest

covering the basics, part 1: rethinking food

i've done the clean program several times before this but for some strange reason, my latest foray into the wide, wide world of eating clean is causing too many profound changes in my life.  i can't stop decluttering and cleaning my apartment, for instance. i'm having a lot of epiphanies about my life that are exploding like firecrackers all over the place.  my hair and my nails are growing like crazy.  all good things.

i know that i've reached a fork in the road.  no longer can i eat with abandon, the way i used to when i was a kid. i can no longer eat anything that i want and i can no longer eat without thinking. my stomach has changed.  what i could eat then, i can't handle anymore.  the startling thought is that maybe i never could -- and i ignored the signs that told me so for the sake of food, glorious food. if i want a healthy, lean strong body, i have to eat consciously and carefully from now on. i'm not going to be vegan obsessive about it -- just aware, whatever that means.  this process is me figuring out what that means.  right now it means rethinking how i think about food.

i'm kind of pissed off that food is no longer fun, that i can't eat whatever i want whenever i want and that all of this feels like so much work and sacrifice and discipline. but then again, i'm tired of working against my body. and i'm especially tired of carrying around this extra weight that's keeping me from wearing everything in my closet.  i'm committed to my all around great health. so that's that.

here's the newest revelation: dairy is out. a random piece of cheese here or there is one thing but chugging milk or making an elaborate cheese plate for dinner is totally off my radar. yeesh! the things you find out when you do a little research...!

Source: 25.media.tumblr.com via Dennis on Pinterest