This week, new federal dietary guidelines have once again placed food, sugar, and metabolic health at the center of the national conversation. Headlines are buzzing. Experts are debating. Social media is overflowing with hot takes about what Americans should and should not eat.
But for African Americans, this conversation is not new.
For decades, Black communities have lived at the intersection of conflicting nutrition advice, aggressive marketing of ultra-processed foods, limited access to fresh options, and disproportionate rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. We are told to “make better choices” without honest acknowledgment of how those choices have been shaped — historically, economically, and emotionally.
The updated dietary guidance is a step toward recognizing the harm caused by excess sugar and highly processed foods. But guidelines alone do not create change. Education without context does not heal. And information without cultural relevance rarely translates into action.
That is why this moment matters — and why events like the Quit Sugar Summit (January 12–18) are especially critical for African Americans who are ready to reclaim not just their health, but their power.
Sugar is not just a dietary issue in our communities. It is a cultural, emotional, and generational one.
From sweet tea and desserts tied to celebration and survival, to fast food and packaged snacks strategically marketed to Black neighborhoods, sugar has been positioned as comfort, reward, and relief. At the same time, many of us are carrying unspoken stress, trauma, and fatigue — conditions that make sugar’s quick dopamine hit feel like a lifeline rather than a threat.
The result? African Americans are more likely to experience insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disease, often at younger ages and with more severe outcomes. Yet we are rarely given tools that address why quitting sugar feels so hard—or how emotional eating, trauma, and chronic stress drive our food behaviors.
The Quit Sugar Summit exists to change that narrative.
This free, online, science-backed event brings together medical experts, nutrition professionals, and lived-experience voices to help people understand the real impact of sugar on the body and brain — and, more importantly, how to reduce it without shame, deprivation, or perfectionism.
My session, airing Wednesday during the Summit, speaks directly to this lived reality.
As a woman who has gained and lost over 700 pounds, and as someone in long-term recovery from food addiction, I understand that sugar is rarely “just sugar.” It is often tied to survival, identity, coping, and unresolved pain. In my talk, I explore how confusion around food becomes clarity only when we tell the truth about our stories — especially the stories Black women and men have been conditioned to silence.
This is not about willpower. It is about awareness.
It is about recognizing how processed food companies have exploited our communities, how stress and trauma fuel cravings, and how reclaiming our health requires more than another list of foods to avoid. It requires compassion, education, and culturally grounded strategies that honor where we come from while helping us move forward.
The new dietary guidelines may finally be catching up to what many of us have known intuitively: that sugar and ultra-processed foods are costing us our health. But knowledge alone will not close the gap. Community will. Conversation will. And access to the right information — delivered with honesty and care — will.
The Quit Sugar Summit offers that access.
For African Americans who are tired of feeling blamed, confused, or overwhelmed by food messaging, this Summit is an opportunity to reset the narrative. To ask better questions. To learn how sugar affects our bodies differently under chronic stress. And to take steps —small or significant —toward healing our history with food.
Our health is our birthright. Our clarity is our power.
And in this moment, choosing to learn, unlearn, and reclaim control over sugar is not just a personal act — it is a collective one.
To register for the free Quit Sugar Summit, visit quitsugarsummit.com. Join me on Wednesday, and let’s continue this conversation — together.
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Michelle Petties is a TEDx speaker, Food Story coach, and award-winning memoirist. After gaining and losing 700 pounds, Michelle discovered the secret to overcoming stress and emotional overeating. Her free workbook, Mind Over Meals, reveals her core principles for losing weight and keeping it off.