Dr. Harper shares her journey of curing her fibroid tumors with a whole food plant-based diet
Dr. Breeze Harper, also known as Sistah Vegan, is a highly experienced diversity, equity, and inclusion expert with a PhD in the social sciences. Her work focuses on the intersections of food and racial and nutritional health justice, drawing on her background in cultural food geography and black feminist perspectives. In her interview with Nicolette on the third PhD Podcast, Dr. Harper shares her personal story of growing up with a master gardener father who taught her the importance of growing their own food, despite the loss of land around African Americans.
“What structural and systemic inequities are happening, where we’re at the point where we can’t even get what we need, we don’t know how to properly prepare the bulk items, were not eating communally… gulping down and not chewing your food long enough, were in this stoic fast paced society…which is the outcome of a very thick capitalistic exploitative society, that has damaged human beings, soil and people, to the point where certain processes and practices around eating have been normalised and we don’t realize that its causing illness, that to me is really sad and really upsetting.”
Nicolette and Dr. Harper discuss the impact of monocultures and colonization on both people and soil in the United States, leading to a colonized microbiome and chronic disease. They delve into topics such as white supremacy, enslavement, industrialization, and the medical system's treatment of black people. Dr. Harper shares her journey of curing her fibroid tumors with a whole food plant-based diet and expresses her disappointment in the lack of BIPOC voices in the vegan community, as well as the contribution of capitalism in veganism to people's health and the fast-paced society we live in.
Both Nicolette and Dr. Harper agree on the need for pure vulnerability from these voices and moving away from the individualism and monogamist nuclear family lives we live in. Dr. Harper's rich background and expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion, coupled with her unique perspective on food justice, make this episode of the PhD Podcast a must-listen.