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UNCG nutritionist seeks family for locavore makeover

Wednesday, August 26, 2009
(Updated 8:30 am)

Wanted: Greensboro family whose meals consist mostly of fast or frozen foods.

Local dietician and UNCG nutrition professor is in search of a family who wants to adopt a healthier diet. The family must agree to work with her for an entire year.

Must also be willing to:

  • Learn to cook and use organic and locally raised meat and produce.
  • Visit local organic farms.
  • Blog, tweet, post to Facebook and videotape their progress.

Anne-Marie Scott is a passionate foodie who wants everyone to see that a meal is more delicious -- and healthful -- when they cook it themselves. She wants it so much, she's offering one Greensboro family free consultations and cooking lessons for an entire year. That's right. Free. For an entire year.

Scott, a registered dietician and UNCG nutrition professor, prepares most of her family's meals at home. And she's a locavore: someone who prefers to eat locally grown or produced food. Whenever possible, she buys food from local organic farms. She even advises her students to buy Natty Greene's beer because it's brewed locally.

She's also adamant about spreading this message: eating healthfully doesn't mean a strictly fat-free or vegetarian diet. Scott calls herself "the dietician who drinks and eats real food."

She has a stocked bar and Yuengling in her fridge. And a block of rich Plugrá butter. A recent visit to her kitchen even revealed chocolate (egg-free) raspberry balsamic cupcakes cooling on the stove.

Scott says one of her favorite snacks is organic blue corn chips, and her 5-year-old daughter eats Goldfish crackers. They eat meatloaf, barbecue pork and cheese.

"I believe in real food," says Scott, a fan of Julia Child.

Scott, 45, says she hasn't worked out in six years but hasn't gained weight because she mostly eats wholesome foods she prepares at home. She bakes her own whole-grain bread, cans her own salsa and recently gathered her first eggs, laid by chickens raised in her backyard. Scott says the philosophy that weight control is achieved with low-fat diets does more harm than good.

"People should learn to eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full," she says.

She believes this so passionately that she's willing to prove it through her "Locavore Makeover Project."

"What I really want to do is take a family by the hand and show them how to cook, eat and shop," she says.

Sure, organic, locally raised food may cost more than what some families may pay at discount supermarkets. But Scott says they will reduce their long-term food and medical costs. She also wants to prove families don't have to take a lot of extra time to prepare meals. She frequently uses a crockpot and makes larger portions to freeze for busy weeks.

Because she works and lives near UNCG, Scott seeks a Greensboro family. She also requires that both parents be equally committed and that their children be school-aged. Toddlers and babies require limited diets, so she wants to work with children who can be conscious of food choices. Scott also wants to show families that schoolchildren can have fun helping their parents prepare meals. She will consider candidates with weight-loss goals but discourages vegetarian families or those with strict dietary restrictions.

Scott will conduct family interviews with interested families. Participants also should expect a kitchen analysis.

Ultimately, Scott hopes this will create a chain reaction of families mentoring other families to become locavores, too.

 

Contact Tina Firesheets at 373-3498 or tina.firesheets@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

File photo (News & Record)

Want to participate?

Contact Anne-Marie Scott at amlocavore@gmail.com.

To learn more about the Locavore makeover project, visit http://locavoremakeoverproject.blogspot.com

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