33 JANUARY 2018 THECURRENTHUB.COM
life. I’m not claiming this to be research but rather firsthand testimony. I’ve seen our food patterns come full circle. I witnessed the birth of fast food and the very first frozen dinners. Now doing the right thing, eating wise, is a choice—something we have to work on. Let’s just not make it so hard. Most of the food served by our major corporations is downright bad. My hometown had one of the first McDonald’s right on the main drag. I remember it fondly and I also remember a huge difference… the experience today is nothing like it was back then. I know everyone picks on McDonald’s but they’re the standard bearer for corporate food and to be clear they are all the same. I confess though, I raised kids on chicken nuggets, grease, and fries. So that makes me a sinner too. Our grocery stores can tell the same story as our corporate restaurants. Over time they grew and became obsessed with structure and scale of growth while forgetting about the quality of product of the shelves. Once small local businesses selling mainly locally fresh food turned into 10,000 square foot behemoths packed full of mostly junk. Look at the rise of disease and obesity running parallel to corporate food growth. Simple choices at the market can be transformative. There is now a body of evidence that fats—especially those from whole foods such as nuts, seeds, avocado and fish and healthy oils— are good for our nutritional well-being, benefiting our heart health, blood sugar, and weight, to name a few. “When it comes to what we eat, if it’s a plant, eat it! If a box claims it comes from a plant, better to leave it on the shelf. Things in boxes are usually pretty highly processed and don’t help us reach our health goals,” said Dr. Kaller. “I like to recommend the Mediterranean diet. It consists of heavy vegetables, fruits, nuts, moderate protein, like seafood, and good fats. Eating this way lowers our chances of heart attack, diabetes and more.” See it’s not just me.
Local farmers markets, like the Roswell Farmers and Artisans Market, offer great opportunities to eat local and eat fresh.
Spreading Good Food Karma Things are cycling back to fresh these days. Our culinary lexicon is filled with buzzwords like “farm-to-table,” “organic,” “non-GMO”—you get it. Now to some degree this marketing is getting rather silly but we do have a multitude of choices and the right choice in eating is becoming easier by the day. So let’s do 2018 the easy way. Look for local. If it’s Georgia grown it means you just got healthier and it benefits a neighbor who tills the soil for a living. I’ll call it good food karma, and it’s all around. We’re surrounded by food co-ops and local farmer’s markets and for many of you they are even within walking distance. They need our support to survive. They literally represent a new era of small business… I mean how much smaller can you get than a stall at a market. That’s a biblical era business model folks. Continues on next page
Steve Whitmire, a local cattle farmer, settles down for a meal at Greenwood’s on Green Street in Roswell.