Addressing a Health Crisis with Plants

This afternoon, I stopped by a local grocery store, a chain that originates from my home state of North Carolina, and while it is not my favorite, I have often been impressed by the offering of fresh fruits and vegetables, and many organic options as well. 

Today was a different experience. I just moved to the capital city of Raleigh from a small rural town, and the store is located in a relatively affluent area. I was stopping for a few tomatoes. When I entered the front door, I couldn’t see the produce section. In the past, it would be directly to the right, but this store had replaced the area with a bakery full of bread, cakes, and rolls. 

Photo by Dan-Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash

My eye caught a few vegetables beyond the bakery, so I wandered back, thinking that I would find a large selection just around the corner. It was not to be. The once large area that I was used to had been reduced to a 10’ x 10’ space, consisting mostly of tomatoes, grapes, apples, and bananas. I was stunned. 

We need more, not less, of these fresh fruits and vegetables in our diets. We need a diversity of them. While I understand the concept of supply and demand, this new development made my heart sink. This area, full of manicured hedges and gated communities, was home to buyers not interested in fresh fruits and vegetables beyond a sparse offering. 

I had to sit down and write this blog post because we are in the midst of a health crisis. There is a way out, eating better, and that means eating a diversity of plant foods. We have lost much of the diversity since losing local family farms to Big Agriculture. There are small movements to reverse this trend, but demand will be the driver of how fast and big the trend will grow. 

The solution to the obesity epidemic in our country, as well as the explosion of chronic diseases, found even in young children, is going to be a healthy food system. As I paid for my tomatoes at the self-checkout, I looked around. All around me I saw prepackaged, highly processed foods, the very foods that have led us into this healthcare crisis. 

It was the sign that I needed to keep talking about diet and how to eat to reclaim our health, both physical and mental. Please read the other posts on my blog, and read about the Whole Food Plant-Based way of eating. We can turn this Titanic around, but it will take a collective effort. 

Peace,