Wednesday, July 28

Nashville’s Tomato Art: Local and Organic

For the 2010 Tomato Art Festival I wanted to create a piece of work that reflected how passionate I am about organic food. In 2009 I went through some major health issues that lead me to reevaluate my entire diet. After many trips to the doctor and hospital (with no solution) I was at a complete loss.

I decided to take matters into my own hands and figure out how to make myself well. Luckily a book called, The Maker’s Diet crossed my path and I realized I was sick because of my diet. It infuriates me that not even one doctor told me to try changing my diet to get well, because that was the miracle cure!

After a lot of research and education I realized that harmful food additives, especially sugar substitutes were making me sick. In January 2010 I decided to go organic. It wasn’t easy at first, but with trial and error I have found a diet I can stick with that keeps me very healthy.

The artwork I created is a list of the most harmful food additive ingredients with the letters, EAT ORGANIC FOODS highlighted in red from the text. It is graphic word art inspired by my life story.

The idea didn’t occur to me until after I watched the movie, Super Size Me a few weeks ago. It awakened my frustration with the food industry in America and is proof of how harmful manufactured foods are to the human body. I truly believe if more people decided to eat whole foods then we wouldn’t have so many health problems today.

If you are suffering from something similar please email me at beth@binglishART.com and I will share more of my story with you to try and help. If you have any advice on eating organic foods please share and leave a comment.


Don't miss seeing this artwork in person at The Tomato Art Festival: Saturday, August 14th at Art and Invention Gallery in East Nashville.

4 comments:

Jenny Lutkins said...

I would love for you to post a link to this or write up this story on The Skinny Jenny Project! I would also like to know what you use besides sugar substitutes. I cannot shake my sweet n low for coffee and I know I just need to get used to nothing. Ick!

Unknown said...

I would love to post this to The Skinny Jenny Project! I know it's tough to kick the sugar in coffee habit, I did it five years ago and am so glad! I love my coffee better now with just some whole milk.

Unknown said...

Great post!
my family of five is making the lifestyle change now, last year i gave up alcohol, nicotine, sodas and caffeine. this year bye, bye to refined carbs, red meat basically a major food overhaul and adding exercise everyday. it has been quite tasking with a junk food junkie, 2 teens and a tween, but well worth the effort and they are actually enjoying it! It's quite fun to create new recipes and just being more responsible and educated on what we eat. maybe i will see you this weekend. have you watched Food INC or Botany of Desire these are 2 more great information documentaries. jodi

Unknown said...

Thanks Jodi! In this past year I've given up smoking cigarettes, fast food and caffeine. I've cut way down on carbs and sticking to fruits and vegetables. I love it and feel so much better! I haven't watched those movies yet, but they are sitting in my netflix queue!

Hope to see you this weekend too!