At The TableFood & Health
What 1,249 Black Americans told us about heritage, trust, cost and care — and what would make eating well easier.
Food is heritage, and it is also a bill that keeps rising.
Food is deeply personal, cultural, and political — and, for Black Americans, it sits at the intersection of all three. It’s a source of heritage and community, but it exists alongside rising grocery bills, product safety concerns, and a nutrition information landscape that can seem impossible to navigate.
The result is a community that is health-aware but systemically constrained. To understand how food shapes the health, culture, and wellbeing of Black people, Word In Black’s Insights & Research Division surveyed 1,249 Black Americans across the country between April 22 and June 8, 2026.
— Michael W. Twitty, The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
Four things the data made plain.
Trust in food safety is low
Felt somewhat or very insecure about whether the food they buy is safe to eat — a broad erosion of trust in the American food system.
Eating out is common
Ate meals prepared outside the home — including fast food — three or more times a week. Among 18–34s it is 41%.
Price is the ask
Called for lower prices on fresh fruits, vegetables and whole foods — the single most requested change.
A guidance gap
Had little or no awareness of federal nutrition guidelines, or didn’t know they were updated in 2025.
Together these findings show that improving food health in the Black community requires more than individual behavior change. They underscore the need for public health strategies that address the structural, economic, and cultural forces shaping how Black Americans eat — while centering the voices and lived experience of the community itself.
What started as survival became a heritage recognized worldwide.
Why it matters
In the Black community, food is not just sustenance. For generations, Sunday dinners brought entire communities together for fellowship and the sharing of resources. “Soul food” became a metaphor for flavorful, traditional dishes created from plantation scraps and discards, remixed with foods and techniques that survived the Middle Passage.
But those foods, and the eating patterns associated with them, carry hidden dangers — often high in fat, sugar and sodium. Black communities carry disproportionately high rates of cardiometabolic disorders including coronary heart disease, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes.
That outsized impact is not simply the result of individual choices. It is the result of decades of systemic inequality — redlining, community disinvestment, limited access to healthy food, and a food system that has not always served the Black community equitably.
Food traditions are typically formed at home, in childhood.
1,249 Black readers, ten legendary publishers.
Respondents were Black American readers of Word In Black and 10 partner publishers from across the U.S. Results are weighted to reflect the age and regional distribution of Black adults; education and income are not weighted.
In the unweighted sample the largest age group was 55 and older (n = 557), and the plurality lived in the South (n = 419). Educational attainment was high, with 397 respondents holding postgraduate or professional degrees, and the largest income group reported $100,000 or more (n = 373).
Where food knowledge comes from — and what we do with it.
A number of psychological, physiological, and sociological factors influence food choices in the Black community — beginning with the traditions formed at home, in childhood.
Thirty-two percent said their foundational knowledge of food and what to eat came from their homes and families. While familial food traditions have the most influence, personal exploration is clearly part of the curriculum too: 29% said their own research and experimentation formed the basis of their current food knowledge.
Asked how they think about the food they grew up eating, nearly half — about 47% — are trying to balance traditional foods with healthier choices. Roughly a quarter still eat mostly the same foods they grew up with, while about 12% have moved away from their traditional diet for health reasons.
Six in ten don’t feel the food they buy is safe.
Forty-six percent strongly endorsed the belief that food widely available in the U.S. contributes to diet-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
And when asked directly about food safety, a startling 60.2% felt somewhat or very insecure. These beliefs reflect a lack of trust in the safety and health of the food available to Black consumers — and point to the need for a critical, public discussion about the state of food in America.
“Put it back, or find a cheaper unhealthy version.”
Not hunger, exactly. Trading down.
Nearly 23% of Black Americans live in food-insecure households, according to the USDA’s most recent findings — a number that rose from 2023 to 2024. Meanwhile a 2024–2025 International Food Information Council study found more than six in ten Americans noticed significant increases in their grocery bills.
While many Word In Black respondents did not report struggling with food access outright, price increases clearly reshaped their shopping. The story that emerged was one of trade-offs: swapping higher-priced foods for cheaper alternatives, buying less, bypassing organic, and skipping the healthier option to stay inside a budget.
A noticeable share reported buying fewer fresh fruits, vegetables or meat, or lowering the quality of what they buy — a practice that could signal a widening gap in access to healthy food.
Reasonable prices now outrank taste, convenience and healthfulness as the deciding factor in where to shop.
How shopping changed.
We asked respondents to describe how their food shopping or consumption behaviors changed in response to rising prices.
Look for manager’s specialsLooking for deals
Put it back or find a cheaper unhealthy versionReduced healthy options
I buy less food and carefully choose it.Buying less
I try to buy healthy foods that are on sale or if I have coupon for certain itemsStill trying to eat healthy
Eat cheaper types of food. Chicken vs steaksTrading down
I budget accordingly and comparison shop, but do not compromise quality.Budget discipline
Shop for meals that will stretch, eat less meatStretching meals
I try to cook more at home and eat lessCook more at home
I rely on the local food pantry, buy cheaper food and eat lighter on the weekends.Food assistance
I buy food and freeze things so that I don’t waste money and look for sales and discount codesAvoiding waste
More than one in three eat out three or more times a week.
Where and how Black Americans get their meals reveals the structural and economic forces shaping diet. Restaurant takeout and fast food in particular are often high in sodium, unhealthy fats and added sugars — and low in nutrients.
The age gap is stark
Younger respondents (18–34) are much more likely to eat out three or more times a week — 41%, compared with 22.5% of those 55 and older. That mirrors national data, and it could signal the need for targeted public health campaigns aimed at younger Americans.
Choices abound when deciding where to buy, too. Two in five respondents said it is paramount to choose a grocery store where food is reasonably priced — beating taste, convenience and healthfulness. That inverts national IFIC findings, where taste has driven purchases since 2006, and likely reflects the compounding effects of economic inequality and limited access to affordable, quality food in many Black communities.
Price beat taste. That is the whole story in four words.
People grade their own diet a B — and feel the difference.
Fifty-four percent of respondents graded their diet a “B,” compared with 51% in a general U.S. population survey. Nine in ten agreed that diet affects emotional and mental wellbeing — a connection nutrition scientists have long endorsed.
The gradient between self-graded diet and self-reported health is steep. Respondents who gave their diet an A were overwhelmingly likely to report positive overall health: 86% rated their general health excellent or very good, compared with 48% of B students, 10% of C, and 5% of D.
The guidance gap.
Healthy habits begin with closing the gap between awareness and access — making nutrition information both available and actionable.
Navigating competing information, sorting through unreliable nutrition advice on social media, and keeping up with rapidly shifting government standards is no small task. 47% of respondents had heard very little of the official federal food and nutrition guidelines, didn’t know they were updated in 2025, or had never heard of them at all.
There is better news on the clinical side. Conversations with dietitians and healthcare providers are the most trusted source of guidance nationally — and 73% of our respondents said they have had those conversations, regularly or occasionally.
Asked what would make eating healthily easier, people named the system.
Many respondents named structural changes as the top priorities. But the appetite for knowledge — 38% wanting more education about food and nutrition — signals an important entry point for public health interventions.
Strong health awareness. Real barriers. Both are true.
What comes next, and who has to carry it.
The study highlights both the complexity of dietary decision-making and the systemic pressures shaping how Black Americans eat — revealing strong health awareness alongside real barriers to affordable nutrition and trusted information.
- Expand access through subsidiesPolicymakers, community health organizations and food retailers can widen access to healthy foods where cost is the binding constraint — the change respondents asked for most.
- Invest in culturally relevant nutrition programsGuidance that reflects the food people actually cook and eat, rather than asking them to abandon a heritage.
- Deliver education where people already gatherPartner with trusted community leaders to bring health education where Black Americans live, work, worship and gather.
- Center the community’s own voiceStrategic public health efforts that address economic inequity and expand nutrition education can meaningfully improve dietary outcomes — when they start from lived experience.
Together, these steps can move us closer to equitable food health and a reduced chronic disease burden in the Black community.