The sound that dominated church music in the 20th century is no more
The Short Version
With the recent death of Ben Speer, the style of southern gospel music popularized by James Vaughn and the Stamps-Baxter singing schools in the earliest part of the 20th century fades into the mist. The old quartets are gone. In their place is a smoother, slicker sound that is more like popular country music than anything that has its roots in a church. This was a sound that influenced people such as Bob Wills and Elvis Presley, among others. The genre has suffered before, but this time there likely is no resurrection.
A Little Background
I realize that the majority of people who are our regular readers won’t have a clue what I’m talking about. Certainly, most of those in my immediate circle have never heard of southern gospel music at all and even among those who do, few would recognize the difference in styles between the mid-20th century and now. Southern gospel music is important, however, not merely from a religious perspective within the Christian community, but from an educational perspective as well. Let me explain why.
Way back in the mid-1800s, when any kind of formal education was limited largely to the wealthy and formal music education even more difficult to afford, along came this guy B.F White and his good buddy E. J. King. White had developed a four-tone scale, commonly known as the fa-sol-la scale, that used shapes to indicate the notes. It looked something like this:
The style was modified over the years to eventually account for a full 8-tone scale, but the purpose remained the same: to make it easier to teach music to people who couldn’t read. Singing schools teaching the shaped-note system occurred all over the country, most frequently in the one-room churches that also doubled as the community schools. Music schools were often held on Saturdays so that the hymns could be sung in church on Sunday.
The system spread steadily throughout the 19th century, especially throughout the South. Then, in 1920, James Vaughn revolutionized the whole music school paradigm by forming a quartet with three of his brothers that would travel, perform, and teach. This provided for each of the four parts to break out and be taught separately, making the schools more efficient.
Vaughn’s quartet was so successful that it started a movement. Vaughn himself founded 16 other quartets and sent them out singing and teaching. Quartets started popping up everywhere. Some were specific to singing schools, but others began to focus on performance, singing at tent revivals. When Virgil Stamps founded what would become the Stamps-Baxter Music Company in 1924, the singing school movement spread even faster as the paper-backed song books were cheaper for churches and individuals to afford. The song books were so popular that I’m willing to be there are still rural churches scattered across the South that has them sitting in their pews.
As the nation sank into the Great Depression, more people turned to churches as a source of comfort and the singing schools as a primary source of entertainment. There were a lot of notable people who were involved, including Alfred Brumley, Thomas A. Dorsey, Bob Wills, and Mosie Lister. Anyone familiar with the heritage of southern gospel music has sung the songs these people wrote.
In the middle of all this, in 1939, G.T. Speers, more commonly known just as “Dad,” formed a quartet with his wife Lena, and his sister and brother and law. Dad Speers worked for Vaughn’s company at the time and later took a position as a singing teacher for the Stamps-Baxter company. As his own sons, Ben and Brock, grew older, they eventually replaced Dad’s sister and brother-in-law. Their daughters, Rosa Nell and Mary Tom would sing with the group at different intervals as well. The Speers Family represented, in almost every way possible, the core and spirit of southern gospel music. Here’s a sample from a 1950s performance with Mom, Dad, Ben, and Brock.
Then This Happened
After World War II, southern gospel music, with its rich harmonies and a call-and-repeat music style that made each part stand out, took off and became a commercial success. Singing “conventions,” featuring multiple quartets, became as popular as the tent revivals that dominated the Eastern portion of the United States, especially the South. The quartets were typically accompanied by an accomplished pianist whose stylings were as unique as any sonata and frequently as complicated as any jazz riff. The sound was wholly unique from anything else being recorded at the time.
Groups started becoming celebrities. Names such as the Blackwood Brothers, The Statesmen, The Cathedrals, The LaFeveres, The Happy Goodman Family, The Chuck Wagon Gang, The Flordia Boys and The Kingsmen were well known and frequently drew large crowds. Southern gospel music became a competitive recording genre in which music labels such as RCA were all too happy to invest. However, that post-war burst was to be short lived.
In 1954, a plane carrying The Blackwood Brothers Quartet crashed, killing two of its members. Almost overnight, the quartets and many other musicians abandoned flying and took to using tour buses. While the buses seemed safer, there was an emotional price to be paid for spending hours on end traveling from one engagement to another. Disputes flared as differences in musical taste and the limits of personal space along with time away from families took its toll. As was common for the time, many quartet members also smoked heavily, creating health problems for several.
As television became increasingly popular, southern gospel music took its place there as well. Prior to the dominance of network daytime television and news, many local stations produced their own programs featuring quartets both local and national groups. In 1964, Lea Beasley of The Flordia Boys produced the first nationally syndicated southern gospel program, “Gospel Singing Jubilee,” anchored by the Florida Boys, but featuring every major southern gospel group in the country.
With the 60s, the influence of more contemporary Christian music, fueled by the success of musicals such as Godspell, and Jesus Christ, Superstar, as well as the popular compositions of Ralph Carmichael, began to increasingly dominate among younger audiences. The popularity of southern gospel music waned as churches struggled to hold the attention of teenagers and young adults.
Audience numbers and record sales declined through the early part of the 70s. Then, in 1973, at the National Quartet Convention in Nashville, TN, James “Big Chief” Wetherington, the bass singer for The Statesmen since 1953, died suddenly backstage of a heart attack as the group was about to go on. Hearts sank as the death of one of the most recognizable figures in southern gospel music was announced on national television.
One can argue that from that point forward, southern gospel music was seen more as a novelty act. When Elvis Presley added J.D. Sumner and the Jordanaires as his backup group, few people knew of the long-standing connection Presley had with southern gospel music. Instead, they saw the secularization of a gospel group. When the Oak Ridge Boys released a secular album in 1977 and scored a hit with Ya’ll Come Back Saloon, the public perception of southern gospel music plummeted even more.
While southern gospel music never went away, it became more of a niche genre with a small and aging audience.
Bill Gaither To The Rescue
In 1991, The Gaither Vocal Band was recording in a Nashville studio and invited several well-known gospel singers and groups to join them for a specific song. After the song was recorded, the singers, many of whom had not seen each other in several years, stayed and reminisced and sang around the piano. This gave Bill Gaither an idea to create a program that would bring together the remaining living southern gospel legends as well as current groups, including soloists and duets that had started dominating the genre in the 1980s.
The resulting Homecoming series of videos and recordings were a boon for both Gaither and the southern gospel music industry. Suddenly, people were interested in old-time southern gospel music again with its individual voices blended together in syncopated counterpoint and improvisational piano stylings that were a blend of ragtime and jazz. Just as much, people were interested in the aging legends that Gaither brought together. Seeing Ben Speer, Jake Hess, Vestal Goodman, and J.D. Sumner all singing together was a reminder of just how powerful the blending of those voices could be. When The Statemen’s Rozie Rosell joined Jake Hess, Hovie Lister, and George Younce one last time for Oh What A Savior, there was hardly a dry eye left in the house.
One of my favorite moments was when the Homecoming choir was singing Heavens Jubilee with Rosa Nell Speer on the piano. Homecoming pianist Anthony Burger tried bumping Rosa Nell off the piano bench. It didn’t work. Here’s what happened.
The little fun moments like that made this revival of old-time southern gospel music feel personal, feel special. Millions of people bought the tapes and recordings, bringing the genre of southern gospel music back into the limelight once again. The number of groups began to grow and even though the new sound was different, it is difficult to deny that the Homecoming events prevented southern gospel music from being relegated to a moment in history.
Nothing lasts forever, though, and when one centers a series of events around personalities who are already well past their prime one has to expect that there is going to be a point where those who started the series are no long there, and after more than twenty-five years that is what has happened. Consider all the wonderful musicians who appeared on the Homecoming series that are no longer with us. I’m not sure this is a complete list, but here’s what I could find. The year each one died is in parenthesis.
- Albertina Walker (2010)
- Andraé Crouch (2015)
- Anthony Burger (2006)
- Ben Speer (2017)
- Bob Cain (2000)
- Brock Speer (1992–1999)
- Buck Rambo (1991–2016)
- Cliff Barrows (2016)
- Danny Gaither (2001)
- Doris Akers (1995)
- Dottie Rambo (2008)
- Earl Weatherford (1992)
- Eldridge Fox (2002)
- Eva Mae LeFevre (2009)
- George Beverly Shea (2013)
- George Younce (2005)
- Glen Payne (1999)
- Hovie Lister (2001)
- Howard Goodman (2002)
- J. D. Sumner (1998)
- Jack Toney (2004)
- Jake Hess (2004)
- James Blackwood (2002)
- Jessy Dixon (2011)
- Johnny Cook (2000)
- Labreeska Hemphill (2015)
- Mary Tom Speer Reid (2014)
- Rex Nelon (2000)
- Roger Bennett (2007)
- Rosie Rozell (1995)
- Stephen Hill (2012)
- Vestal Goodman (2003)
Some of those deaths hit the community especially hard. Anthony Burger died unexpectedly while on a Homecoming cruise in 2006. Dottie Rambo passed from injuries sustained in a bus accident in 2008. Both were dominant and joyful personalities that lit whatever room they were in. As each southern gospel legend died, a bit of that old-time music passed with them.
According to Pollstar, the Homecoming tour sold more tickets in 2014 than major rock acts such as Elton John and Fleetwood Mac. However, by 2015, the number of legends able to participate in the tour had reduced so severely that, once again, audiences began to diminish. The light began to go out.
Why Do I Even Care
I know that, for our regular readers, this whole article has to seem strange and out of place coming from someone who speaks against the hypocrisy of religion in general and questions the singularity of any deity on a regular basis. So, what gives? Why do I find this particular matter one worthy of several hours of fact checking and date confirmation?
Because, for the first 25 years of my life, southern gospel music was home. The Statesmen, Blackwood Brothers, and Cathedrals were the bulk of records my parents owned. We watched the Gospel Singing Jubilee while getting ready for church on Sunday morning. I learned to play piano in that improvisational style. When I could coax our family around the piano in the evenings, these were the songs we sang. Southern gospel music was a part of our daily life.
Equally important, these were the people we knew. Doy Ott, a former baritone for The Statesmen, was an optometrist in Bartlesville, Oklahoma when not out singing with the quartet. We would drop by, say hi, and listen to his stories about the antics between Jake Hess and Hovie Lister. When I was 14, J. D. Sumner, who was a towering 6′ 5″, claimed I was too short to reach the piano and stacked hymnals on the piano bench before I sat down to play. I met Hovie Lister for the first time when I was 19 and we remained friends until his death in 2001. These and many other relationships we had were personal. In one way or another, each one was influential in how I grew up.
In a metaphorical sense, Ben Speer’s death locks the door on that part of my life. Those who were the most influential, whose instructions and advice I heeded the most, are all gone. While we have recordings and videos to remind us of their incredible talent, we can no longer experience those personalities, listen to the stories, or get bumped from the piano bench as we once did. No matter how wonderfully mastered the recording is, there is no matching the chill that came from being in the same room as Rosie Rozell’s soaring tenor or feeling the floor vibrate when J. D. took his bass extra low.
No one sings that old-time style of southern gospel music anymore, either. Voices that dominate today’s southern gospel scene are more polished, refined, and frequently carefully honed through years of practice and education. One won’t find anyone who first learned to read shaped notes among today’s artists. Today’s southern gospel music is more about who gets the solo on the verses, not the give and take counterpoint of each voice.
I spent no small amount of time yesterday listening to the top 20 southern gospel songs as listed by the Southern Gospel Times. The experience was interesting. I’ve not listened to contemporary southern gospel for many of the same reasons I don’t listen to contemporary country music: the sound holds practically no relationship to the original. That doesn’t mean the sound was bad, mind you. In fact, the vocal abilities of most the artists I heard were quite impressive. Yet, the sound is more heavily produced, micro-managed in a studio to the point that the necessary sense of emotion and conviction that is pertinent to southern gospel music is lost.
A good example would be 2nd Generation’s cover of the Hemphill’s I Came On Business For the King, which is currently number seven on this week’s chart. The trio has a nice sound and great harmony. The song itself has an appealing melody that sticks in one’s ear long after it’s been heard. I can understand why the cover jumped so high its first week on the chart. However, when I turn around and compare that to the original recording by the Hemphills circa 1977, with 13-year-old Candy Hemphill taking the lead on the song Joel Hemphill wrote, the emotion evoked is still amazingly stronger than the new cover.
Southern gospel music now revolves more around individual voices. Quartets of any kind are rare. I had to jump down the chart to number 24 before finding a song by the Tribute Quartet. Their sound was, again, quite good, but so polished and carefully produced that it was missing any connection that might have said, “This is more than just another song.”
I’m not sure words sufficiently communicate what I’m feeling. Let’s see if we can do this another way. Consider first this video posted recently of the Tribute Quartet singing an old southern gospel standard, This Old House. The song, which features the bass, is deceptively difficult because of the tempo at which it’s sung.
Now, listen to an older version featuring George Younce and Glen Payne with The Cathedrals. Mark Trammell is singing lead which dates this video somewhere in the 1980s. Personal side note, Mark’s daddy, Charlie, and my daddy were friends for several years. I first met Mark at their home in North Little Rock when he was 15. He had an amazing voice even then. Anyway, consider the difference in how George treats the song.
See the difference? Please tell me you do. Same song, but totally different levels of emotion and cohesiveness. Notice how George brings the group into a circle so they can actually hear each other, creating a better blend. Few modern groups understand that dynamic, but George grew up in a day when all four members of a quartet had to sing around a single microphone. That unified sound came people working together, not from a mixing board in the back of the auditorium.
Yes. I will admit that there is a lot of “old man reminiscing” going on here. As every generation grows older, there is the challenge of adjusting to the newer sounds of music that is constantly progressing and adopting new technologies and capabilities. We miss the older sounds because they were comfortable for our ears. We know those sounds better and can relax. We don’t know newer music so it takes more effort to listen and we don’t always come away feeling that the effort was well placed.
Let me also reiterate that there is nothing wrong with contemporary southern gospel music. The genre is still valid and isn’t likely to go anywhere anytime soon. While the audiences for individual groups tend to not be as large as the Homecoming gatherings once were, they are still significant enough to warrant attention and consideration.
But that old-time southern gospel sound? Those songs with intricate harmonies and the pianists with fingers that flew across piano keys are all but gone. Not only are the people who sang them gone, but to a significant degree, the people who listened to them and enjoyed them are gone as well. Without a definable audience, any music genre is going to fade away.
Remembering What Was
What southern gospel music lost with the passing of Ben Speer was the last loud, dominant voice for that old-time, singing school-based, shaped note style of music. He was instrumental in keeping the Stamps-Baxter singing schools going and in reminding the world of that unique sound of which he and his family were so very much a part. I suppose that Bill Gaither might continue to include some of those old songs in whatever occasional Homecoming events he might have, but Bill’s relationship to that old-time style isn’t the same as Ben’s was. Bill has always been more progressive and supportive of integrating new sounds with old music. Ben, on the other hand, was always there to say, “Yeah, that’s nice, but let me remind you how it was meant to sound.”
With Ben Speer’s death, we lose that direct historical connection, that champion of the Stamps-Baxter songbook. No, Ben isn’t the last of that era, but he was the last dominant figure to make sure the sound wasn’t lost or corrupted, that the old-time way of teaching music wasn’t forgotten, and to show us how beautiful it could sound when done correctly. During Ben’s funeral service, Bill Gaither referred to him as the “harmony marshal.” That’s Ben’s commitment to that old-time sound, one committed to intricate and constantly moving harmonies with melodies that lept from high voices to low voices with no warning. Ben understood what it took to put it all together.
We don’t get that sound in the same way anymore. Now, it’s all handled in the control booth. If someone’s pitch is a little off, it’s auto-tuned. If the tempo starts to lag it’s simply pushed a little digitally. All the human fallibilities are removed and along with it so is the sense of human spirit and emotion with which we once identified.
Below, I am embedding the video from Ben Speer’s funeral service (April 11). Unless one is really a huge fan, you’re not likely to want to sit through the entire thing. While the stories and eulogies are entertaining enough on their own, the length at which they go on becomes a bit tiresome for anyone not close to the family. There are a couple of moments, though, to which you’ll want to jump forward.
The first comes at 48:10 when a local choir takes the stage. These are not professional singers. These are volunteers who have a connection with the Stamps-Baxter singing schools of which Ben was so very much a part. They sing four songs. This is southern gospel music in the raw, the sound that came from rural churches all across America for the better part of the 20th century. There is no measured volume, no careful blending of voices. This is an open-up-and-let-it-fly style of singing. During the summer, which church windows would be open, you could hear the sounds all over town and the echoes out into the country. What you want to hear, though, is about the 55-minute mark with the choir sings a verse in the fa-sol-la style taught in the singing school. Don’t be surprised if it takes a moment for your ears to adjust. To the uninitiated, it can sound as though they’re singing in some strange language. It’s not. At the 58-minute mark, they move into a song by “Dad” Speers that was one of Ben’s favorites and was well-known for singing, He Is Mine and I Am His. Again, the sound is unpolished, but the emotion is evident throughout the auditorium.
Then, following a couple of eulogies and other songs, at 1:32:50 Bill Gaither finally takes the pulpit and after some brief remembrances, leads the Homecoming choir in some of Ben’s best-known songs. I’ll be honest, this part was rough for me. I looked across the faces and there were so few that I recognized. I saw Lea Beasley of the Florida Boys there and Reba Rambo-McGuire as well as a handful of others, but all the other familiar faces and voices with which I grew up were absent. They’re all gone. As the choir sang songs I’ve heard Ben Speers and his family sing my entire life, there was no getting rid of the lump in my throat. Oh The Glory Did Roll comes at 1:47:34 and gives one a more polished, professional version of the Stamps-Baxter style of singing. It really is quite impressive. Then, at 1:51:30, they start in on Never Grow Old and when they get to the second verse, they bring up a video of Ben merged with a video of Dad Speer, singing the song along with them. The emotion couldn’t have been any higher.
Be sure, southern gospel music will continue. There will be singers and groups that will stand out and they will find contemporary ways to speak to a contemporary audience. But it will be different. That old-time southern gospel sound, the part that was rooted in the Sacred Harp and burgeoned from the Stamps-Baxter singing schools, is gone. What’s left are memories. Recordings. Videos. We’ll hold on to those memories with fondness even though our life takes us so very, very far away from that community. I’ll always appreciate what this sound and this music means to me and a part of me will miss it.
With fondness, we say goodbye and rest in peace.
Can I Eat Here
Fighting Type 2 Diabetes means finding flexible places to dine
Pizza sounds soooo good, but there’s sugar in the crust and enough sodium to deliver a heart attack
[dropcap]Ready-to-wear fashion season is always a bit stressful around here. I’m up at 2:00 in the morning trying to catch early runway shows in Europe and trying desperately to keep up with trends and issues. I can get a wee bit irritable by the time it’s all over.[/dropcap]
This past February, though, was worse than usual. I was fussy before New York even started. There were other issues as well. I was constantly running to the bathroom. I was always eating something. If I wasn’t in the middle of a show or writing a review, I was napping. The slightest little deviation from expectations was upsetting. Worst of all, my blood pressure was at dangerous levels despite medication. Something had to be done and Kat gave me little choice but to make an appointment with my doctor.
After the appropriate blood tests, my doctor determined that I have Type 2 diabetes and, oh yeah, that puts me at high risk for a whole slew of other things, of which high blood pressure is only the beginning. Liver disease. Kidney failure. Heart disease. Every time the doctor mentioned something else, he wrote another prescription. The instructions were to take them all or bad things, very bad things, could happen.
I left the doctor’s office that morning feeling devastated. My father had Type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, he didn’t find out until his retinas detached, leaving him blind. I remember far too vividly the adjustments he had to make to his entire lifestyle. Mother was incredibly strict not only about what he ate (and didn’t eat), but also making sure he ate at exactly the same time, or as close to it as possible, every day. Poppa confided to me on more than one occasion that his menu had become so dull and tasteless as to take all the joy out of eating. Is this what the rest of my life would become?
Then, as though the universe wanted to emphasize the point, an acquaintance who had ignored her diabetes until she lost a leg, unexpectedly passed away. The entire time I knew her, she subsisted on pizza, fried chicken, and mac-and-cheese. On top of that, she smoked two to three packs of cigarettes a day. The only nod she made to her diabetes was drinking Diet Coke. Granted, the diabetes wasn’t the direct cause of her death, but it most certainly contributed to it.
The message I was received was clear: a lot had to change, and that change had to be made immediately without compromise. My A1C, which is a three-month average of blood sugar, was at 10.5. Anything above 6.5 is diabetes territory. At 10, one is in danger of everything from eye problems to nerve disease. I needed to get that number down and get it down quickly.
Following what I knew from Poppa’s regimen, everything with sugar in it went away immediately. No chocolate. No pie. No cake when anyone celebrated a birthday (and we had three within a month). No barbecue sauce. In fact, since most sauces have fat as a base (either in the form of meat drippings or butter/dairy), almost every sauce I’ve ever used is off the menu. Nothing fried, at least not in the traditional sense. At my next check-up, a month later, I had gotten my A1C down to 8. Still high, but low enough for one month that the doctor was impressed. We were doing the right things. All we had to do was keep it up. Easy enough, right?
Hardly.
I need to eat now
Eating well always sounds easier than what reality delivers
[dropcap]At my doctor’s insistence, we met with a dietician who specializes in counseling diabetics. She was encouraging in telling us that we were doing all the right things, and, if anything, could ease up a little on how strict we were being. She explained that current science shows that a complete elimination of fats and sugars isn’t necessary, but a severe limit on certain foods while emphasizing others. Her recommendations were similar to the American Diabetes Association’s Create Your Plate program: 25% protein, 25% grains & starchy foods, and 50% non-starchy vegetables. She also emphasized getting 130 grams of carbohydrates in each day, which isn’t as easy as it sounds.[/dropcap]
We set out some dietary goals that I could track easily enough. I shoot for 2000 calories a day, though I seldom actually eat that much. When we’re talking steamed veggies and fruit, 2000 calories is a lot of food! We try to keep the total amount of sugars under 50 grams. This includes naturally-occurring sugars, mind you. Most days I’m able to keep that under 20 grams, though, which is helpful. My limit on saturated fat is more of a challenge some days. 22 grams is the limit. I’ve had to change much of the way I cook to stay under that number.
Perhaps the most challenging, though, is watching my sodium intake. High blood pressure is one of the most common problems associated with diabetes. Watching sodium intake is critical to controlling both diseases, but it’s not easy. Everything one buys at the store has sodium, even if it’s labeled organic. My limit is 2300 milligrams, which may sound like a lot, but consider that just ONE Big Mac contains 950 mg of sodium. If you want to get really crazy, a Dave’s Single at Wendy’s contains 1250 mg of sodium! Add fries and a soft drink to either, and one can pretty much exceed the sodium limit in just one meal. Even something that sounds as healthy as boneless, skinless chicken breast comes packed in a solution that contains, you guessed it, sodium.
We discovered that keeping to most of the dietary limits was easy enough, though I still have issues with cholesterol. The more unexpected issue was that once the prescriptions kicked in and my blood sugar began dropping and my blood pressure evened out, I was more aware of severe drops in my blood sugar when they happened. Yes, most of the time I was feeling better, but when my blood sugar drops there is an instant weakness, dizziness, and often a sense of confusion. The solution is to eat something immediately, such as sucking on a piece of hard candy.
If Kat is with me, which she is a large portion of the time, there’s no problem. She keeps Jolly Ranchers in the bottom of her purse for just such emergencies, and then we get something healthier to eat as soon as possible. When she’s not with me, though, the situation can get scary, quickly.
This first became critical one Thursday in April when I was out by myself, sitting at the Starbucks on 46th and Illinois, doing some writing. After a few hours of working and sipping coffee, I began to feel the early signs that a sugar drop was happening. I had wisely brought some candy with me and fished a piece from my sweater pocket. Disaster averted, so it would seem. But I needed something real to eat. I looked at the Starbucks menu and there was nothing safe. While sugar counts might be low on some items, everything was loaded with sodium!
I looked across the street at one of my favorite places to eat: The Illinois Street Emporium. If nothing else, I figured, I could get a salad there. Even that, though, came with a challenge. At 11:30, there was already a line out the door and down the sidewalk. I knew there was no way I could stand in line for several minutes. I popped another Jolly Rancher and waited for the line to go down.
Once I could get inside, about 30 minutes later, I looked at the menu board. I was starving by this point and really wanted more than just a salad. The fragrances of all the homemade breads and fresh food were intoxicating. There’s a damn good reason people go out of their way to eat here. Examining the menu was a bit disheartening, though. Many of the sandwiches contained sauces or were cooked in a sauce that was either high in fat, contained a lot of sugar, or loaded with sodium. For some, the portion size alone was too much. I finally found a spinach and tomato sandwich on 100% whole wheat bread (a critical factor) that, with a couple of minor adjustments, wouldn’t cause any problems and would meet my dietary requirements.
That experience drove home something I had rather known all along but had yet to experience first hand: eating out diabetic is difficult!
A larger problem
Over 30 million people have Type 2 Diabetes and that number only keeps growing
[dropcap]If I were the only person on the planet with this unique dietary problem then we might say that it’s my fault for having eaten poorly, and there are still some who might say such a thing. We frequently hear Republicans refer to diabetes as a “lifestyle” disease, implying that we bring it upon ourselves. That’s not the case, though. I’m far from being alone. Over 30 million people in the US alone have diabetes and that number grows dramatically every year. Does diet play a part in that? To some degree, yes, but it does not cause the disease. In fact, scientists have yet to figure out exactly what predisposes someone to be a candidate for contracting Type 2 Diabetes. Hereditation seems to play a factor. Ancestry seems to be a contributor. Diet is a participant but not necessarily a determining factor.[/dropcap]
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that as much as a third of the people who have Type 2 Diabetes don’t realize they have it and of those who do know and are receiving treatment only about 20% are getting appropriate treatment. Like my recently-deceased friend, many people who have diabetes think they can either wish it away or that it’s not a real disease. They couldn’t be more wrong.
When we spoke with our dietician, she explained her amazement with my early results. “Here we are talking about little ways you can improve how you eat and that’s unusual for me. With the majority of patients, I struggle to get them to just cut back just one can of soda a day. They don’t understand how everything they put in their mouth is killing them.”
Because of that sense of lack of urgency, diabetes doesn’t get as much public attention as it should. Not since the late Wilford Brimley, whose diabetes-related commercials have been widely parodied, has the disease had a spokesperson widely associated with Type 2 Diabetes. Because the issue is rarely in our faces, we don’t think about it. Its symptoms are similar enough to other more “popular” diseases, such as depression, we are more likely to investigate those remedies than we are to ask our physician for a blood test.
Making matters all the more difficult is the fact that Type 2 Diabetes is a lifetime disease. Yes, one can get it under control to the point that medication is no longer necessary. However, if at any point one decides to abandon the diet, the problems and dangers of the disease are coming right back, and likely even stronger and more troubling than before.
Type 2 Diabetes requires individualized treatment to be effective. Not everyone needs to take insulin shots. A significant number of people, myself included, are able to control their diabetes with Metformin, a biguanide that decreases blood sugar levels. Some, like my late father, need other stronger medications. Some need very little. There’s no one-fix-cures-all approach to controlling the disease. One needs to see their doctor on a regular basis and carefully follow the instructions provided.
Then, there are the associated diseases to which we’ve referred. Diabetes can contribute to any of the following:
On top of all that, as if those weren’t enough, diabetes can sap your stamina and cause severe sexual dysfunction! Even when the disease is being reasonably well managed, many of those problems can still affect one’s health. So, instead of just taking one or two medications, most people with diabetes end up taking several others as well in order to avoid the problems for which they’re most at risk. Again, every situation is different, so consulting a doctor is absolutely critical.
So, where do we eat?
A healthy pizza and muffins are possible, but you won’t find them on most pizza menus
[dropcap]I enjoy cooking, so for me, the best and easiest solution for controlling my diet is to eat at home, which is what we do a very large percentage of the time. There are days, however, where eating at home is either not practical, possible, or pleasurable. Those are the times when eating out becomes a challenge. Convenience certainly goes out the window because there is practically nothing on fast food menus that keeps both fat and sodium below my allowable limits. Most devastating from the convenience food category is pizza. From the dough to the sauce to the processed meats, there is no standard pizza place that makes a pizza I can eat.[/dropcap]
Sit-down dining offers more and better options, but even there one can find plenty of challenges, even if all you want is a salad. House dressings are almost always loaded with sodium, especially if they are low- or no-fat. Pre-packaged salads are frequently covered in cheese, which is a high-fat food. Chain restaurants buy much of their meat in bulk and freeze it, which inherently means a higher salt content. Plates are frequently loaded with starchy vegetables, such as potatoes, corn, and peas. One has to be careful.
One’s best, and safest, approach is to dine at locally-owned restaurants. The food here is likely to be fresher, contain less fat and sodium, and depending on the time of day and the item, more easily customized to one’s particular needs. We asked restaurateur Ed Rudisell, owner and investor at several Indianapolis-area restaurants, including Rook, Black Market, and Siam Square, how his restaurants respond to requests for special orders. We weren’t surprised by his response:
“We get occasional requests for substitutions and happily do what we can when preparing the food. Of course, some dishes are easier than other to make adjustments to, but we always try our hardest to accommodate.”
While we’ve only eaten out a few times since being declared diabetic, I have found Ed’s response is typical for locally-owned eateries. Generally speaking, local restaurants are more responsive and sensitive to unique customer needs. There are times, though, when even a locally-owned restaurant can’t adjust a menu item to order. Rob Koeller, Owner/Executive Chef at Culinary Concepts & Hospitality Consultants and former dean at The Chefs Academy at Harrison College, went into a bit more detail:
“The whole “trick” to the restaurant business regarding the food is that you “prep” or pre-prepare as much of the food as possible without jeopardizing the quality so that you can get the food out to the customer in a timely fashion. Depending on the dish that is offered, many (if not all) of the ingredients are already fully cooked and simply needing a reheat. An example would be Veal Osso Buco or any braised dish. Of course, soups and stocks are not being “made-to-order” so being able to keep your food quality up is a struggle and daily challenge. In these types of dishes, it is hard to make any substitutions due to the nature of the recipe.
On the other hand, many dishes are not that way when it comes to preparation. Sandwiches, salads, sautéed items, etc. all can be actually “made-to-order” and quickly reach the customer. With these types of dishes, it is easy to make substitutions or leave allergens out, etc.
My basic approach to any special requests from customers is that if their request is possible/doable, then the answer is “yes” as to whether or not a substitution or alternative can be executed. The customer, in my regards, is always right so if their request is something that can be done at the moment then it will be done. Of course, there are requests that simply can’t be fulfilled. (i.e. a gluten free customer wants sorghum flour used in their pasta but there is no sorghum flour in the establishment).”
One of the things I appreciate about Chef Koeller is his ability to adjust to requests on the fly, something that is aided by the depth of his experience. Experience and education such as his typically aren’t found in most chain or fast-oriented restaurants. Many chain restaurants don’t require any formal education for their kitchen staff at all and turnover is frequently high, making the development of those skills difficult. Asking a line cook at iHop to make adjustments in how your chicken is cooked might be more challenging than making a similar request at a restaurant such as Black Market.
Again, Chef Koeller explains:
One of many points that are taught to a culinary student is that he/she are not cooking for themselves anymore; they are cooking for others. In today’s world of increasing food allergies, diabetes, and compromised immunities, it is critical for a chef to be aware of the various challenges such as you speak. Truth in advertising is heavily stressed because of these obvious reasons. A menu item that contains 40% sodium enriched ingredient(s) should state something to that fact on the menu. With the high turnover in hospitality employees, it has been increasingly difficult to rely on the server to relay important dietary information to the customer.
When I first started looking at places that were safe to eat, I instinctively looked online for nutrition information. What I saw tended to scare me. There are several websites that specialize in providing nutrition information for common dishes at chain restaurants. Pulling from the website nutritionix.com, we looked at some dishes one might think would be safe. Here’s what we found. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
From Applebee’s:
From Panera Bread:
From Red Lobster:
Any of those menu choices might be one which a conscientious person would reasonably think safe for the average diabetic, and for some diabetics, they might very well fit the bill. However, there are caution points to each one. Look at the fat values, especially saturated fat. Fat turns into sugar and is often more dangerous than the actual sugar content of the food. Anything that represents more than 10% of my total allowable fat intake for the day is something I tend to avoid. Pay attention, also, to sodium. The Applebee’s menu item, as healthy as it sounds, is already over my limit of 2300 mg for the day. For anyone with concerns about heart disease, cholesterol levels are important as well. None of these menu items are as safe as we would like for them to be.
There’s a danger, though, of relying on nutrition information. There are different ways of calculating those numbers and percentages. While the differences are typically not severe, when one is watching each and every gram, such as I do, those differences can matter a lot.
Diabetics also need to understand that certain foods inherently come with certain risks. One large egg, for example, represents 50% of my daily cholesterol limit. I don’t have to ask, I know that anything prepared with egg is going to have a higher cholesterol and a slightly higher fat level. Knowing these things is important when dining at locally-owned restaurants that are not likely to have nutrition information available and for very good reason. Ed Rudisell explains:
“For small restaurants, it is nearly impossible to provide nutritional information. Our menu items change too frequently, the lab costs for testing are insanely high – making it the territory of chain restaurants, and preparations of a dish can change daily with the availability of ingredients/produce meats.”
What may be the biggest challenge to diabetics, however, is portion size. We, as Americans, are preconditioned to think that more is better and that, especially when it comes to food, we need to make sure we are getting our money’s worth. This is one of the primary reasons that America has an obesity issue and contributes in no small amount to the rise in Type 2 Diabetes. We are, in a word, gluttons, and that is a huge problem. Moreover, the fault for that problem doesn’t lie with the restaurants, but with the consumer. We demand more, so restaurants feel obligated to provide more.
Jolene Ketzenberger, editor, and the host of WFYI’s Eat, Drink, Indy, among a number of other food-related qualifications, places the responsibility for portion sizes squarely on the consumer:
Consumer demand drives dining trends. As more people wanted vegetarian or gluten-free dishes, for example, more restaurants began offering them. And now we have some strictly vegetarian restaurants. If there is a demand for a specific type of food, the market will comply, and someone will offer it. I think some restaurants, particularly the locally focused, farm-to-fork restaurants, do offer smaller portions; in fact, many of them get criticized about it. And the “small plates” trend makes it easy to enjoy a few bites of a dish rather than an entree-sized portion. So diners do have more options these days to eat lighter, healthier fare.
Mr. Rudisell adds:
As far as portion control is concerned, we try to keep everything reasonable. But I will say this: A LOT of Hoosiers’ definition of value is based on quantity over quality. We encounter this all the time. If you read the reviews of some of the best restaurants in the city, you’ll very often find “portions are too small for the price”. Again, quality is hardly taken into consideration, if at all. A lot of people only focus on the size of the plate and not the quality of the food/preparation. I’ve seen this time and again in my 25 years managing restaurants.
I cannot help but think that this is why it can so often be difficult to find menu items that are safe for diabetics without modification. We don’t say anything. Some are too embarrassed. Some don’t want to be a bother. The worst, though, is that the majority of people with Type 2 Diabetes aren’t even trying. Again, going back to the case of my deceased friend, even among people who know they are diabetic, roughly 70% are not following any kind of doctor-prescribed plan for addressing the disease! They prefer to endure the ever-growing list of consequences rather than watching and tracking what they eat, taking a handful of medicines every day, and getting a reasonable amount of exercise. Such ignorance speeds one’s encounter with death and ultimately reduces the amount of pleasure one can have in their life.
Solving The Problem
Dining while diabetic can be just as much fun as any dining experience
[dropcap]Since that first day when I was caught out and needing food, I have had other situations come up where I needed to make a quick decision about where to eat. While I may not be able to indulge in my favorite fat-ladened pizza, I found several places that I can eat safely and still enjoy something with more culinary expression than kale. The onus is on me, however, not the restaurants and not the chef, to know what my body needs and what fits within my dietary allowances. [/dropcap]
Can diabetics eat out and enjoy the experience? Absolutely! Here are some simple steps for making your dining out just as much fun as it has always been.
Let’s get real before we end this thing. Being diabetic is anything but fun. The problems can be severe and it has severely curtailed my activities. Even if I get my A1C level down below 5, diabetes never goes away. The dangers associated with the disease never goes away. Diabetes is a life sentence and the best one can do is learn how to deal with it effectively.
I am distressed by the number of people who do nothing to control their diabetes. If all 30 million diabetics started paying attention to controlling the disease, eating better, taking their medicine, and exercising, we could have a dramatic impact on the entire country. We would likely see more restaurants with menu items appropriate for diabetics without modification. We might even see changes to how fast food is stored and prepared. Who knows, we might even start seeing pizzas with whole wheat crusts and non-processed toppings!
We, as diabetics, have to shoulder the responsibility, though. Nothing changes if all we do is sit on our ever-expanding asses and ignore the issues plaguing our health.
Yes, you can eat out. Take some responsibility and find places that work for you. Everyone will be better for it.
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