“Southern food involves a mass of contradictions…[it] reveals history, social values, and social problems…” (Davis & Powell, 2014, p.8-9). The pinnacle of Southern cuisine can arouse a sense of comfort in those who consider it part of their identity. These same culinary traditions have long been condemned as unhealthy for a variety of reasons. But what has been consistent about Southern food culture is how it lends itself to change. Developed over centuries, Southern food culture has historically been documented as the creolization of African, Indigenous North American, and European culinary traditions with the contributions from other cultures as well. In the 20th and 21st centuries, our society at large has expanded the conversation around food to consider its health effects. Southern restauranteurs, dieticians, grocers, and everyday people have followed suit. This exhibit explores the ways in which some in The South has uniquely melded health consciousness with tradition.

In the display case:

• The Black Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook: health conscious recipes & food memories / with Dorothy I. Height & the National Council of Negro Women, Inc.
• A Date with a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes / Freda de Knight
• Soul Food Love: healthy recipes inspired by one hundred years of cooking in a Black family / Alice Randall & Caroline Randall Williams; photographs by Penny De Los Santos

Traditional food often associated with African American cuisine, like the ones represented in Date with a Dish: A Cookbook of African American Negro Recipes have been reimagined in Soul Food Love and The Black Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook with health in mind.

• The Daily Mississippian. "Chicory Market: Classic Store Represents Modern Food Culture" (July 12, 2018)
• The Daily Mississippian, “UM’s 3rd Annual Food Day Celebration”, (October 16, 2023)

• A cook's tour of the Azalea Coast: including recipes from Auxiliary members, local physicians, area restaurants, celebrities, and a new low fat heart healthy section / Auxiliary to the New Hanover-Pender County Medical Society (Wilmington, N.C.)
• Family Fare: Food Management and Recipes / prepared by Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, Agricultural Research Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Nurse’s Notes on Cooking #2 / A.D. Nursing faculty and students, Hinds Junior College, Jackson, Mississippi
• Southern But Lite / by Avis and Ward Nutrition Associates

Some cookbooks, including “Southern but Lite” offer medically informed, healthy versions of traditional Southern recipes. They tend to include nutritional tables, advice on how to read nutrition labels, and healthy substitutions for ingredients.