Marching on Through
“...our cultural foods are nutrient dense....You are allowed to enjoy them, you are allowed to let them nourish your soul and body. You do not have to substitute them.”
Happy Wednesday!
The groundhog did warn us we had six more weeks of winter, but I guess he didn’t tell us when and what order we would get them! I hope everyone is staying warm and hydrated in this yo-yo weather. We are looking forward to a beautiful day tomorrow! With the time change, we now have this wonderful daylight so much later now! I’m really excited to have nice weather and full daylight for the entire market!
We are still in National Nutrition Month, the theme being Fuel for the Future. What does that look like for each of us? We are so very different from each other, our futures and our ideas of a future look as unique as we do! Sure, sustainability is a huge factor, but it isn’t the only one. We each do what we think is the best for ourselves and our planet, and that I think is the best part about fueling our future! Our futures are not the same and that is an amazing thing! Think how boring everything would be if we all looked and did the same things. Fuel for THE future is a great concept, it allows us to use our unique perspective and find what we can do as individuals or groups for the whole of our planet.
Nutrition does seem rather food focused, but how do we get our food? That is part of nutrition as well. How do we know what food to get? We see our doctors and other healthcare providers who educate us on what we should eat to be healthy. Sometimes we have health issues that require specialized care and instruction on what we should be eating, and that is nutrition as well. We see a lot of this last one. We see so much about diabetes and high blood pressure and obesity. We see the education for it as well, but oftentimes we do not see the education to prevent it. We also see how this education is not always achievable or accessible to certain groups of people or how these people’s cultural foods are blamed for these health issues. When really nutrition is so much more nuanced than that!
Social determinants of health (SODH) play a large part in our nutrition. What is that? The US Dept of Health and Human Services says that SODH are “the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” They are grouped into five domains:
Economic stability
Education access and quality
Health care access and quality
Neighborhood and built environment
Social and community context
Each domain has subcategories that further determine SODH. What does any of this mean? Well, it means that just because you might have an education about your nutrition, it doesn’t mean you have financial access to foods that promote nutrition. This means that when we place blame on an individual for their health issues, we miss the many facets that make up health and nutrition.
Some of my favorite nutritionists explain here about how gun violence, discrimination, access to a grocery store, and access to healthcare are all a part of the equation. How these issues could correlate to higher rates of diabetes and cholesterol rather than the cultural foods that are often vilified.
You can find Your Latina Nutritionist on Instagram and their website.
https://yourlatinanutritionist.com/
https://yourlatinanutritionist.com/blog/what-are-the-social-determinants-of-health
https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health
We have a new vendor with us this week! Come by and check out the amazing work of Ashley of A. Nicole Presents!
And our other current vendors:
Mitchell from Buckwheat Farms and Morgan from Urban Harvest will have various microgreens at their booths! XO Tigerlily has wonderful dried herbs and spices, teas, and more. We will have Bon Bon Bakery, Ms. Shirley, Marie’s Baked Goodies all there with wonderful sweet baked treats. Jams Jellies Jewelry and More and Rosa Ray’s Farm Fresh will also be out there with wonderful jams and jellies, breads, and teas. And we can’t forget about the arts! Prachi Henna art and Sonder Collective will be at the park along with Jump 4 Joy Creations! Hank's Food Truck is a wonderful way to enjoy a late lunch or early dinner at the park! Mr. Porter will be there with his wonderful creations and he also has some beautiful produce for us as well! And to keep us all smelling delightful and our hands clean, Chemscentations has us covered!
We are always looking for more people to join our fun! If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming a vendor at our market, follow the link below for our vendor application!
Just a hint of all the fun we have to offer! Come join us!
We are a partner market with Wholesome Wave Georgia to help make your dollars go further at our market!
Bring your SNAP/EBT card to the market tent to double your spending power!