Healthy Eating Means Returning to Our Roots

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Dr. Doriane C. Miller; Photo: University of Chicago
Dr. Doriane C. Miller; Photo: University of Chicago

If you work in public health, youve probably heard about food deserts. If you reside on the South Side of Chicago, you might live in one. One of the clearest predictors of whether people eat healthy is how closely they live to a major grocery store or some other provider of fresh fruits and vegetables. First Lady Michelle Obama considers a community a food desert, if people want to buy a head of lettuce or salad or some fruit for their kids lunch, they have to take two or three buses, maybe pay for a taxicab, in order to do it, according to a New York Times article from October 2011.

The lack of fresh fruits and vegetables prompts some to rely on shabby-looking produce at local corner stores or skip eating it all together. This leads to some of the health epidemics were facing now, even among children diabetes, heart disease and obesity, to name a few. Those of us living in food deserts have a couple of options: We can continue not eating enough healthy foods; we can wait until a grocery store chain comes along; or we can do what most people did before factories took over food production we can grow our own food.

Its amazing how novel this idea has become. Its so novel that urban gardening is emerging as a new trend around the country. But lets be clear, urban farming is not someone wearing squalid overalls working in a field day in and day out. I, for example, am an urban farmer, and so is my 10-year-old daughter. Ive been doing it for about five years now, for several reasons. I wanted to make sure my family had a steady supply of fresh, healthy food, and I also wanted my daughter to know that food doesnt come from cans and packages. It comes from the earth.

We grow tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, basil and sage in my back yard here on the South Side. For about three-and-a-half months in the summer, I dont have to worry about whether strawberries are on sale. My daughter and her friends can pick them right from our strawberry bush. We get herbs like thyme, mint, and rosemary year round except for the winter months. With the right space and sunshine, zucchini, collard greens and bell peppers grow pretty nicely in Chicago as well.

These plant-based foods are robust with vitamins and nutrients like fiber and vitamin A. This is why the American Cancer Society recommends that Americans eat 2.5 servings of fruit and 2.5 servings of vegetables each day. May is the perfect month to start.

Here are a few tips on growing your own fruits and vegetables:

May is the perfect time to allow seeds the one to three weeks they need to germinate, or show their first sprouts. Then wait about for to six weeks to put them in the ground.

If you dont have a plot of land, try using pots for leaf lettuce and tomatoes.

If you would rather garden outside your home, find a community garden near you. Community gardens are spaces that allow planters to rent a plot of soil and garden alongside others for a small fee of up to $25 significantly less than what youd spend at the grocery store.

If your community doesnt have a garden, ask your alderman about starting one on an empty plot of land.

To learn more about urban farming, especially in Chicago, visit www.growingpower.org, www.communitygarden.org, www.greennetchicago.org, www.auachicago.org

Having access to healthy foods is not a responsibility we should wait for others to take. We can either wait for fish, or learn to fish. Growing our own food is as natural as eating. In order to take control of our health, it looks like we need to get back to our roots.

Dr. Doriane C. Miller is the Director of the Center for Community Health and Vitality, The Urban Health Initiative of the University of Chicago Medicine. For information on The Urban Health Initiative, visit uhi.uchospitals.edu.By Doriane C. Miller, MD

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