endorse the book. Each makes an ap- pearance in Forks Over Knives, a docu- mentary about preventing and reversing disease with a whole-food, plant-based diet. “Once a month we have a potluck of raw, vegan and vegetarian foods,” explains Berson. “We learn about nutri- tion, cooking and living the plant-based lifestyle that my husband and I enjoy.”
Eating Out
“Our most recent meet-up was at Na- ples’ newest restaurant, The Local, with farm and sea-to-table cuisine,” enthuses Berson, who like Tomasi, is always in search of healthy items on restaurant menus. “We challenged Chef Brian to prepare us a meal consisting of whole and plant-based foods with no oil. The results were outstanding.” Food & Thought’s organic café, in Naples, and Chef Brooke’s Natural Café, in Fort Myers, are first choices that both Berson and Tomasi enjoy. At The Mer- cato, in Naples, AZN’s Azian Cuizine is a favorite, as well as Brio Tuscan Grille at The Waterside Shops, in Pelican Bay, and the Yabba Island Grill, in downtown Naples. Other local options include the Happiness Healthy Café, in Fort Myers, as well as Truly Organic Pizza, Whole Foods Market, Earth Origins Market and Loving Hut—all in Naples. Brooke, whose restaurant spe- cializes in organic comfort food with healthy options, teaches weekly wheat- free, gluten-free cooking classes and raw food classes. The one-hour demon- stration includes six to eight recipes that people eat family-style. “I only have 11 tables and the customers typically sign up for the next class. People are hungry to learn and absorb as much informa- tion as they can,” says Brooke.
Hydroponics and Aquaponics Robert Furhman, owner of Green Thumb, in Fort Myers, retails hydropon- ics systems. At least once a day, some- one calls his store to inquire if he sells aquaponic systems like the one used in the sustainability curriculum of Island Coast High School, in Cape Coral, which is meeting the need for industry- specific certifications and training for jobs that create a sustainable future. “I see the interest in these systems as the result of a growing concern about
natural awakenings July 2013 37
GMO foods and toxic pesticides, which are subjects that all of my customers talk about,” says Furhman.
Educational Opportunities Arlo Simonds and Jessi Drummond are service learning coordinators for Florida Gulf Coast University’s one-half-acre Food Forest. Since May 2011, 15 to 20 students have gathered twice a week for five hours to work in the food forest and learn about sustainable agriculture and permaculture principles. The plot grows 48 different tropical and subtropical fruit species, root crops, legumes and
several native species. The food forest also serves as a living classroom for the university’s Permaculture Design certifi- cation course. A healthy lifestyle focused around nutrition-based prevention is what Sayer Ji, the creator of the
GreenMedInfo.com website, emphasizes in his local EATo- mology workshops. “Hippocrates said more than 2,000 years ago, ‘Let food be thy medicine,’ and it’s obvious today from our healthy local food movement that many of us are only embracing this truth, but also exploring how we can make it work in our lives,” says Ji.
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