Lori Freeman – Preservation of the Harvest

A new year has arrived, 2019. For most, that means a fresh new start in all aspects of their lives including becoming healthier. A simple Google search of ‘diet plans’ or ‘diet trends’ will give you almost half a million sites to click on, but for one local it’s all about going back to the basic principles of food and nutrition.

Lori Freeman grew up in Warner Robins. She is a graduate of Northside High School, Valdosta State College, and most recently a graduate of Georgia College where she earned her master’s degree in public administration. Freeman’s full-time job is strategic planning for the United States Air Force. She is currently in her 20th year of her career and has been at Robins Air Force Base her whole career.

Freeman said she has always tried to be health conscious, meaning eating right and getting exercise, but says it wasn’t until she found a book about eating organically and how chemicals affect the body, that led her to a journey of getting the proper nutrition.

“Not long after finding that book, I joined the Georgia Organics state organization,” Freeman said. “I became a member and attended all of the conferences. Through that, it grew as a passion for me. At one of the conferences there was a keynote speaker, Sally Fallon, who is the founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation. She did a whole series on nutrition, which really wowed me.”

From Fallon’s presentation, it “wowed” Freeman so much that she immediately became a Warner Robins Chapter leader in the foundation. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation website, it is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated non-industrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets.

“Dr. Price was a dentist back in the 1930s and 40s,” Freeman said. “He noticed that his patients were coming in more and more with dental defects such as crooked teeth, cavities, etc. So he decided to go on a tour of the world to see different cultures. It was a 10-year study of isolated cultures that did not eat westernized food, only their native traditional foods. Dr. Price found that those people were perfectly healthy, had beautiful straight teeth, were resistant to disease, and had no difficulties in conception and childbirth. The cultures he studied had varied diets. He found some were big meat eaters, some ate grains, and some were primarily fish eaters, but the commonality he discovered was that none of those cultures ate anything that was refined or processed and all ate some form of animal protein.” Dr. Price concluded that a nutrient-dense diet consisting of vitamins A and D, found in animal foods, contributed to a healthy, robust population.

Since joining the foundation, Freeman has read a lot about nutrition, attended all kinds of conferences and seminars, and has really been involved in teaching people in her local community about nutrition with a focus on lacto-fermentation. According to the Cultures for Health website, lacto-fermentation is a process that increases or preserves the vitamin and enzyme levels, as well as digestibility, of the fermented food.

“Before joining the foundation, I even tried being a vegan and then tried eating only a low fat diet,” Freeman said. “But after joining is when I learned the proper fats are essential and that it’s not really about any specific type of diet, but more so about how to prepare foods the proper way for optimal nutrition. I began looking at my pantry and the first thing I stopped was the use of man-made vegetable oils. I now incorporate natural, unrefined fats such as lard, coconut oil, and olive oil. The next step was buying pastured meats from animals that were grass fed. Research shows that processed foods can cause inflammation to the body and other health related issues. So through my teaching, I share what I know with people, let them do their own research, and make their own decisions. I don’t force it, just do my best of getting the message out there and teach what I believe.”

In 2014, Freeman met her now friend and business partner, Jodi Daley. Daley is the farmer’s market manager for the Perry and Warner Robins markets. Freeman said when the two met they began to collaborate, and began spreading their message of healthy eating to their farmer’s market patrons. The two are also owners of the local restaurant, Bodega Brew, in Perry. Freeman said they have quality ingredients they use from local farmers at their restaurant.

“Soon we are going to begin offering classes at Bodega Brew with the first one being about lacto-fermentation,” Freeman said. “There will be a cost to it, but with that, it will include taste-testing, recipes to take home, and a sample jar of what we prepare during that class, to take home. I am also going to be a presenter at the Georgia Organics conference in Tifton next month (February).”

Other topics Freeman plans to offer a class on are the proper way to prepare nuts, grains, and seeds; how to make bone and meat broths; and proper fats to use in cooking. She said in all her classes, she teaches the science behind it and why.

Some people worry about the cost of eating organically and others become overwhelmed by change, such as dieting, but Freeman says it can be done.

“Buying organic food may be a little more costly; however, if a person can eliminate processed foods from their diet, they will see overall food costs will be the same,” Freeman said. “Meaning, in the long run it could also save you money by not having to go to the doctor as much. For example, myself, when I started eating like this, I gained more energy and hardly ever get sick.”

“In my teaching, I usually tell people to start with what’s easiest for them,” she went on to say. “So maybe starting out with the pastured, grass-fed meats which are available at your farmer’s markets and some grocery stores. But it does get easier, and again, there are so many benefits with getting the proper nutrition.”

If you are interested in the classes at Bodega Brew or would like more information, or a one-on-one teaching, Freeman says you can contact her via email at lori@landtohand.org.