(InvestigateTV) — Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of many illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. Yet, according to the CDC, just one in 10 adults eats the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Kelly Homesley, a registered dietitian with Novant Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, offers a strategy for getting a healthy, balanced diet.
“You want to shop in the perimeter of the grocery store, so that’s gonna be your fresh fruits and vegetables, your meat, your eggs, your cheeses. That’s what you want, the majority of your diet and the majority of your grocery cart to come from,” Homesley said.
Michigan woman creates community garden
A Michigan woman is helping educate her neighbors about getting enough fruits and vegetables by planting them herself.
Mary Seeterlin oversees the Cristo Rey Community Garden, which is located behind the Cristo Rey Community Center in North Lansing. When she adopted the garden three years ago, there were trees growing in the space.
After cleaning up and building raised beds, the garden now produces okra, eggplant, garlic, rhubarb, onions, cabbage, broccoli, peppers, lettuce and tomatoes.
“This is going to be our best year, best harvest ever,” Seeterlin said.
The garden provides free produce for those who would normally go without in what Seeterlin calls Lansing’s urban desert.
“Where there’s just not enough fresh food in the inner city,” she said. “You have over 200 people come through the doors every day, and we have one rack of vegetables, and you know it disappears very quickly.”
John Armstrong, a volunteer who is homeless, works in the garden most days.
“Be one that is part of the solution instead of part of the problem,” Armstrong said.
Corporate volunteers from companies including Delta Dental also help with the garden.
“We harvested this basil on Monday, and this woman came in with four kids, and she had a whole bucket of it, and I wasn’t sure what she was going to do with all that basil, but her son, all of 5 years old, is carrying it out and that’s why we do this — to feed the poor,” Seeterlin said.
Virginia farmer grows African vegetables
Patience Fielding owns Esther Manor Farm in Richmond, Virginia, where she grows vegetables native to West Africa, including waterleaf, Njama Njama and bitter leaf.
The plants carry high nutritional value and a long history of medicinal use.
“You wouldn’t find them in mainstream stores,” Fielding said.
Fielding said seeing people struggling during the pandemic inspired her to start the farm.
“I was thinking, what can I do because with the food shortage, how can I help? And so, I started giving out the produce to my community and they didn’t believe me, they were, ‘no way, you are not a farmer, you are lying,’” she said.
She continues to feed her community and educate others about native African plants.
“This is new in America. I want to make it accessible to people and teach them ways they can incorporate that in their diets,” Fielding said.
See the full story by David Andrews here.
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