AUBURN, MARCH 19---Talk to any young man at age 18 about how his nutritional habits may affect his health 30 or 40 years down the road, and you’re likely to get a blank stare.

Age 18, after all, is the time when most young people feel most invincible, when it’s the hardest to fathom how decisions made now can have consequences years, even decades, down the road.

Still, the fact remains that decisions young people make now can affect them much later in life – decisions such as eating, for example.

Granted, healthy diets are an important issue for every young American regardless of race or gender. But for young African-American males, what strikes many as everyday, largely inconsequential decisions, could mean the difference between a long, healthy life and one needlessly cut short by heart disease and stroke.

That is because African-American males, compared with other groups, have a high sensitivity to sodium, a major factor behind hypertension.

Add to that the fact that many young black males, like most young Americans in general, consume high-sodium diets, and you have the makings of a major health concern.

Even so, despite all these factors and all the dire warnings associated with poor eating habits, young African-American males seem unwilling to heed sound nutritional advice and adopt new eating habits, says Dr. Robert Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutritionist.

"They simply can’t be made afraid of the risks associated with high-sodium diets because they’re 18 years old and the notion of dying at age 50 from heart disease or stroke simply seems too remote for most of them," Keith says.

As Keith points out, forcing any young male to change his diet at age 18 presents the most daunting of challenges.

After all, most fast food, the food of choice for most American youths, is chock-full of sodium.

Plus, there is the fact most processed foods are high in sodium. Add to that the fact that many blacks, especially Southern blacks, tend to cook with lots of salt, and you’re facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge.

So, the question remains, how do you get young black males to consume less sodium?

Keith is the first to concede there are no easy solutions.

"You simply have to show them there is a strong reason for them to make these lifestyle changes," Keith says. "If you can show them their mother, father, aunt or uncle have hypertension with a history of strokes, perhaps you will be able to establish a connection.

"But the fact remains that if this threat seems remote, as it does for most young people, it’s going to be hard. Complicating this is the fact most young men simply aren’t going to follow through with lifestyle changes if their peers don’t."

Even so, Keith says trying to drive home the facts of life – or in this case, death – to young black males is a worthwhile effort for any nutritionist, parent or educator. But the question remains, how?

"Any approach should start with a heavy emphasis on fresh and underprocessed fruits and vegetables," Keith stresses. "They should consume more fruits and vegetables and fewer canned products and processed foods."

This also involves throwing out the table salt and sharply reducing the amount of salt used in cooking.

By increasing their intake of fruits and vegetables, young people will decrease their sodium intakes and increase their dietary intake of potassium. Studies have shown a high-potassium diet can often reduce hypertension even without a corresponding reduction in sodium intake.

Another solution would be to increase their calcium intake by consuming more dairy products. However, this may not be a option for many young black males, since the incidence of lactose intolerance tends to run higher among blacks than other groups.

While motivation to change typically increases as people draw closer to the ages when strokes and heart disease are likely to occur, there’s an even greater likelihood of avoiding these problems if lifestyle changes take place early in life.

In the long run, Keith says the best solution may be targeting the message to parents rather than specifically to young people.

"Maybe the solution lies with reaching parents so that healthy eating habits are instilled in kids at a very early age," he says.

(Source:  Dr. Robert Keith, Extension nutritionist, 334 844-3273.)