The Black Woman Who Changed How I Think About Health
The most important health lesson I learned didn’t come from my doctor
It’s May 2021, and after months of social distancing, I’m newly vaccinated, working from home with Penny Deena, and devouring every book someone recommends. Considering I was a little over a year into an autoimmune diagnosis, I couldn’t help but find myself searching for answers in whatever health books I could find.
However, one book recommendation shared by a friend would end up changing how I thought about health forever. And, teach me that one of the most accepted beliefs in modern medicine isn’t nearly as objective as I’d been led to believe.
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Dr. Sabrina Strings, PhD, was a book I bought, thinking that I was going to learn exclusively about fat phobia. By the time I arrived at Chapter 8, Fat Revisited, I realized that the body mass index (BMI), which I assumed was an objective measure of health for all people, initially excluded women. I remember looking over at Penny Deena, thinking, “Who the heck thought that was a great idea?”
Well, spoiler alert, the answer was a man named Ancel Keys.
Ancel Keys was a biologist and physiologist who utilized his influence at the time to convince the American medical community to adopt BMI as a measure of health for all people. That decision helped normalize the idea that weight alone could tell us how healthy someone was.
And generations of women have been judged through a lens that was never created with our bodies in mind.
However, Dr. Strings’ book is more than a history lesson. It’s a reminder that we must ask better questions when evaluating health information. When women come to work with me, it’s been after years of struggling with unexplained symptoms. You might have been told your symptoms are ‘normal,’ your illness is inevitable, or that your condition is something you just have to live with.
However, we don’t need to normalize struggle.
We don’t need to assume that anything is inevitable.
Living with a health condition doesn’t mean suffering in silence.
That’s why Dr. Strings’ book was so critical for me during the beginning stages of my autoimmune diagnosis. Her book challenged me not only to question my own assumptions, but to look beneath the surface for explanations that weren’t assuming I was the cause of my condition. I work with clients to do the same. When you ask better questions, you get better answers.
As much as I appreciate the ability to read books that are solely for our entertainment, books like Fearing the Black Body offer us the opportunity to see the world from a different perspective. Dr. Strings’ book did that for me, and I believe it will do the same for you.
And it reminded me of something that I’ve been hearing more lately. We need to read Black women’s work while they are still here to share their wisdom.
That’s why I’m participating in Bookshop.org’s Anti-Prime Day!
Not just because I love supporting independent bookstores. I want to ensure that I’m supporting Black women whose words are shaping how we understand ourselves and the world while they’re still on earth to receive their flowers.
When you purchase from Bookshop.org between June 23 - 26, 2026, you’ll receive Free Standard Shipping!
Grab your copy of Fearing the Black Body and other books for Anti-Prime Day!
P.S. Now, which woman writer has changed how you see the world? Hit reply and let me know so I can add them to my Anti-Prime Day book list!