By Dr. Genevieve Ufongene, DNP, FNP-C | Vieve Health & Wellness
My grandmother was a strong woman. She raised six children and ran a household where every meal was cooked from scratch. She carried the weight of the family on her back, and she never once complained.
She also carried high blood pressure for nearly thirty years, and nobody in our family really talked about it. We didn't call it hypertension. We called it "her pressure." We treated it with prayer and bush medicine, trusting that this was simply what happened to people as they got older.
She passed from a stroke.
I think about her every time I sit with a patient who has lived with uncontrolled blood sugar or blood pressure for years. It is rarely because they didn't care. It is because nobody ever sat down with them to explain what the numbers meant and what they could actually do about it without giving up the food they grew up eating.
That gap between what medicine knows and what our communities actually receive is why I built this blog.
Who I Am
I'm Dr. Genevieve, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner with more than 15 years of clinical experience. I've spent my career working directly with patients who are managing diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and other chronic conditions.
I'm also a Nigerian woman. I grew up in a household where rice every Sunday was non-negotiable and eba and soup for lunch was simply how the day worked. Food was never only fuel in my home. It was culture and identity, the thing that held people together.
And I got tired of watching those two worlds, the clinical and the cultural, treat each other like strangers.
So I built Vieve Health & Wellness, a health education and coaching platform made for Africans and the African diaspora worldwide. Your health story deserves someone who understands both the science and the kitchen you grew up in.
What This Blog Is For
Every article on this blog is written with one person in mind: someone from our community who wants honest health information, not the kind that tells you to "avoid rice" and calls it a day.
Here's what you'll find here:
Honest answers about the foods we actually eat. Can you eat garri with diabetes? What does jollof rice really do to your blood sugar? I'll give you the clinical truth, put into language that makes sense for your everyday life.
Clear explanations of your health numbers. What does your A1C actually mean? Which blood pressure reading should worry you, and which shouldn't? You deserve to understand your own body instead of nodding along in a doctor's office.
Real talk about the health issues our community carries in silence. Diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease hit Black and African communities harder than most, all over the world. We're going to talk about why that happens, and what we can do about it together.
Practical guidance that respects your life. I'm not going to hand you an elimination diet or a 5am workout routine. I'll offer realistic adjustments that fit around your culture and your day-to-day life.
One Thing I Want You to Know Before You Read Another Word
You are not broken, and your food is not the problem. Your culture is not an obstacle to your health.
Too much health advice treats African and Caribbean patients as if our traditions are just risk factors to be managed, things to apologize for or quietly abandon. That is not what you'll find here.
The African kitchen is full of ingredients with real medicinal and nutritional power: bitter leaf, moringa, unripe plantain, garden egg, okra, tigernut. Your ancestors knew this, and modern nutritional science is only catching up.
What I want is to help you understand your body well enough to protect it, using the wisdom already in your culture alongside the clinical knowledge I've spent fifteen years building.
Where to Start
If you're new here, here's what I'd suggest:
- If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, start with Can People with Diabetes Eat Garri?. It's one of the most common questions I get, and the answer will probably surprise you.
- If you want to understand what your numbers mean, keep an eye out for an upcoming plain-language breakdown of your A1C, the single most important blood sugar marker.
- If you've been told you have high blood pressure and you're not sure what to do next, watch for an upcoming post on hypertension in African communities. It's coming soon.
And if you're ready to go beyond reading and get support built around your own numbers and the way you actually eat and live, I offer 1:1 coaching through my Know Your Numbers program. You can learn more and see pricing here.
A Note on What This Blog Is Not
Everything you read here is health education. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for your relationship with your own doctor or provider. I'm here to help you understand your health and ask better questions at your next appointment, not to replace the clinical care you deserve.
If something I write raises a question about your own situation, bring it to your provider. And if you'd like more personalized guidance, that's what the coaching program is for.
Thank you for being here. I built this for my grandmother, and for every family in our community that has carried illness in silence because they never had someone explain it to them with both clinical knowledge and cultural understanding.
I'm glad you found it.
Dr. Genevieve
Vieve Health & Wellness
vievehealthwellness.com
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