If there is one thing I know Caribbean people are proud of and miss when they aren’t home, is Caribbean Food. For us in Cayman it’s the amazing Cayman Style Beef, Oxtail, Curry Chicken, Jerk Chicken, Conch, Turtle Meat, Rice and Beans, Fried Plantain, Fried Fish and Fritters, Cassava Cake, Coconut Water, Stewed Beef, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Potato Salad ,Cole Slaw and so much more. These are the foods us Caymanians love to have at Celebrations and honestly, eat in everyday life.

However, when it comes to healthy eating, many of us have said that we need to cut out on the foods above, claiming that they are what made us gain weight, caused high cholesterol and blood pressure, and other physical ailments. I would partially agree with that belief, however I don’t believe it’s those foods that led to the abundance of health issues Cayman and other Caribbean countries are now facing.

I believe it’s the over-consumption of those foods, how the foods are prepared, and the combination of some foods that have led to our health issues. Let’s consider these three things below.

Over-consumption

Like any food or caloric substance, intaking more calories than you are burning will lead to weight gain. Further, consuming a great amount of high carbohydrate foods will in particular, also lead to weight gain. From the foods above, too much rice and beans, too much potato salad, too much macaroni and cheese, and too much heavy cake will lead to not only weight gain, but if over consumed over a long period of time, diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.

From a scientific point of view, every gram of carbohydrate you eat is broken down into simple sugars (glucose) as it enters your body. Your body than releases a hormone called insulin which allows your body to use the sugars you have consumed as energy and to store for future use. Insulin will then store the sugars into either your muscles or your liver, and the sugars now become glycogen. When your body needs energy, this stored energy/glycogen will be released. However, like any storage space, there is by nature a limited about of space.

Thus, weight gain occurs when you have eaten too much carbs/calories for your body to use and store in your muscles and liver, thus the extra sugars are then stored as fat around your body. Also, your body will continue to produce insulin every time you eat carbs and if over-consumption continues, your body could eventually STOP producing the insulin because it can’t keep up with the amount of glucose being pumped into your body. Thus, the autoimmune disease diabetes is now born.

How the Foods are Prepared

Let’s start with the carbs above. Most of them are prepared with saturated fat, corn fed cow milk, processed and gluten filled flour, an excessive amount of cane sugar, and hydrogenated oils. And all of those ingredients, especially when consumed in abundance, are not conducive to one’s health. For example, dairy is designed for children to gain weight, gluten contains anti-nutrients which block absorption of key nutrients and can also eat away at your gut/intestine lining, and hydrogenated oils are not naturally occurring and have been genetically modified to last longer on shelves.

In regards to meat, meats are not bad for you. Quite the contrary, protein from meats provide you with amino acids and other nutrients you need to build muscles, cells, and other internal body structures. However, just as with the carbs we tend to eat in the Caribbean, we tend to prepare the meats with a lot of hydrogenated oils (vegetable oil, mayonnaise, etc). Thus, although we are getting good protein from meats, we are also getting unhealthy additives which wreak havoc in our body.

Combination of Foods and Macro-nutrients

There are three types of what we would call “Macro-nutrients” which should be consumed at every meal: protein, carbs, and fats. To eye ball it, one should consume roughly 1-2 palm sizes of protein, half the plate of veggies, and about a 1-2 thumb sizes or tablespoons of fat (this will change depending on your nutrition goals).

However, in the Caribbean, we tend to consume too much of one type of food and not enough of another. For example, we will eat BBQ chicken with rice and beans, potato salad, and maybe a bit of ice berg/green salad. Although this is “balanced” in that it contains the 3 macro-nutrients, it is disproportionate. More than likely, the meal has two servings of rice and beans and with the potato salad, counts for too much carbs. The BBQ chicken is also sweetened with a lot of sugar and maybe some veggie oil, and the salad dressing probably contains hydrogenated oil and sugar.

These extra ingredients lead to more calories and carbs, which as we talked about above, can lead to more stored fat if you don’t use the extra energy through exercise and everyday activity. Further, they can lead to systematic /chronic inflammatory conditions in your stomach and body, which in the end can lead to an array of health problems such high cholesterol, diabetes, constipation, skin issues, Celiac disease, etc.

That all just sounds depressing, doesn’t it? I may have just made you feeling that you can’t eat anything now, but that isn’t my intention! My passion and goal is for you to actually EAT those Caribbean foods which you grew up loving, but to alter the ingredients in such a way that eating these foods will ADD to your health, instead of SUBTRACT from it. You can eat healthy, eat Paleo, eat Whole 30, eat real foods AND enjoy Caribbean Foods. Period.

Therefore, I will make it a personal goal to post Caribbean dish recipes periodically that use real ingredients, have an array of nutrition and will ultimately, leave you empowered to enjoy your Caribbean culture and its food while still eating well.

Island Taste Restaurant, it’s Tuesday and you know what that means? Give me that Cayman Style Beef 🙂

(See recipe for Cayman Style Beef below!)

Cayman Style Beef

Ingredients

• 10 lbs Fresh Beef (Pieces of every cut including portions with fat).
• ½ lb Onions, diced
• 4 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Scotch Bonnet Peppers (to taste)
• 1 Tbsp Black Pepper
• 1½ Tbsp Salt
• Seasoning Peppers (to taste)

Trim portions of fat from lean meat and set aside. Season beef with salt, pepper, finely chopped garlic, and diced onions. Add in diced and seeded seasoning peppers to taste. Place fat portions in a large heavy pot heating until rendered. Place the seasoned beef in pot and reduce heat to simmer. Place whole scotch bonnet peppers over meat. Cover with a tightly sealed lid, and simmer on low for 4 to 6 hours depending on tenderness desired. Remove whole peppers carefully after cooking to prevent bursting, then stir and allow meat to shred.

Serve with fried ripe plantain (in coconut oil), Boiled Cassava or Sweet Potato [sub for the rice and beans in the recipe below] and your choice of steamed vegetable.

Check out the full recipe here.