INTRODUCTION

You're a team of three community health nurses who are assigned a caseload of older Southern African-American women recently diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2. On their first follow-up visit post-diagnosis, the women in this particular group had HgbA1C and fasting blood glucose findings that were higher than on the previous visit.

As your team visits with each of these women, a recurrent topic of conversation is difficulty adhering to the diet they have been asked to follow - a 1200 calorie ADA exchange list. Common reference is made to family reunions and "dinner on the ground" following church. Favorite foods mentioned include fried chicken, cracklin' cornbread, greens with fatback, and all manner of pies and cakes. They fondly speak of a heritage of "good Southern cooking" passed on from ancestors long gone. All these women, however, want to improve their health and are willing to make some dietary changes ... as long as they can adapt dietary changes to their cultural heritage.

What will your team do ... What evidence will you find ... to convince these women that it is possible to make dietary changes without giving up their cultural heritage?

Help these women pass on to future generations a heritage of Southern cooking that is also healthy!