by Rachel Williams
The University of West Georgia kicked off the new year by celebrating delicious, healthy food. On January 21, students crowded the Campus Center to get tips for eating nutritiously. The event began at 3 p.m. and ran until 7:30 p.m. Experts included UWG health education peer mentors, Michelle Lewis from the UGA Extension Agency and health services’ new part-time dietitian/nutritionist, Sara Wilburn.
Nurse anesthetist and long-time Carrollton resident Paul Duso fed students’ minds as well as their stomachs in the Campus Center Ballroom from 5 to 7 p.m. Paul, who is certified in plant-based nutrition through Cornell, drew a large group of listeners. After explaining the benefits of eating a plant-based diet, Paul invited those in attendance to try the foods he had brought. While students munched on oil-free corn chips, rice-less vegetable sushi and pita sandwiches loaded with hummus, Paul explained how quick and easy it had been to make the meals.
“Really, you can go to almost any grocery store and eat a whole foods, plant-based diet,” Paul explains. “I try to buy locally in the summer, and I do actually have a hydroponics garden as well as earth boxes, which are above-ground boxes of dirt you can plant produce in. It’s been very educational and fun. Most of us think we’re going to live forever, but I see such horrific things in my profession because of diet, and it doesn’t have to be that way. What I do is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.”
