Dee Veggie RD Intro

Hey ya'll!!!!!

Welcome to my new Plant Based Nutrition Blog where we will talk about all things food from growing, cooking, preserving, eating all the way to nutrition. I'm Demetria Cox-Thomas, a Plant Based Registered Dietitian & Veggie Gardener based in Charlotte, NC. Since 2016, I've managed several raised bed community & school gardens & provided garden & nutrition education at locations such as a local senior retirement community, multiple Pre-K to high schools, a nearby University & local farms. I love helping people to find joy in eating plant based foods by sharing exciting ideas & recipes to support those who are currently plant based or plant based curious.

A little background on me:

I grew up around gardens & enjoyed farm to table meals before it was a thing. My Daddy, my grandmothers & a lot of my great aunts & uncles had and still have backyard gardens throughout Charlotte. In addition to being great gardeners, they were also amazing cooks. My love of food come from being raised in this space and having those close experiences. My Daddy made vegetables enjoyable for me to eat since I was young. I loved squash as a child because my Daddy grew it & cooked it well. I didn't have my first store bought squash until I was an adult. Now one of my favorite veggies is okra simply because I learned how to grow it & cook it in way that I can enjoy it. I carried that love for food on to my daughter by sharing my cooking & gardening hobbies with her. To this day she loves telling people that her love for avocado comes from the fact that it was one of her first foods. Now I want to share that love with you.

I remember being little and hearing my relatives talk about having high blood pressure & taking all these medicines for different things. I knew then that I wasn't bout that life & took an early interest in nutrition (before I realized what that even was) so I didn't have to deal with that struggle. Just a few years ago, I remember sitting in a room with some of my relatives & they were discussing their health. I remember hearing one of them ask if they take high blood pressure medication. The other person said yes, I do. The third relative said yea, all Black people have it. Now I'm not going to get into the particulars yet about how much stress & other socioeconomic factors also play a role in this but our food has a major impact on our health & most times it's the one thing that we have more control over than we think. I'm here to support you at taking control of your health through plant based food.

The Plant Based Journey

At the end of 2015, I started a lot of firsts. My hubby & I purchased & moved into our first home. Then I decided to embark on a loc & plant based journey at the same time. I had been mulling both decisions in my head for most of the year. But thinking back on it, I never was a huge meat eater. I was the one at Thanksgiving with a big plate of sides & very little meat. I was the one eating up all the veggies at any meal time. My family cringed at how disrespectful I was with a chicken wing, picking over it & leaving all the meat behind. By this time, I had given up beef. I never consistently ate seafood or pork but bacon & pork skins was still my addiction. And ya'll want to know what the last straw was: this particular week I ate chicken 3 days in a row. For the first 2 days, I remember thinking how over I was eating chicken. The last day, I got sick from some chicken that I ate from a fast food joint. After that I was like, you know what, I'm good on this.

Now that doesn't mean that I gave up everything at once. That was just the moment I set an intention to phase out meat in my diet. For the next few months, I dabbled in the struggle of letting go bacon & pork skins but eventually those were phased out too. I also didn't trip about meat pieces in the stewed greens & meat broths at first. I started with just not consuming meat. As I continued in this journey, I was able to let go of some of the other things as I explored new veggies, flavors, plant based & vegan products, & expanded my diet in a way where plant based was very fulfilling for me. These changes added to my diet without me feeling deprived of foods I once ate. It made my food selection more diverse so I could stick with it.

Today, everybody assumes I'm vegan but I prefer the term plant based. I eat & share A LOT of delicious vegan food, I don't eat meat, drink cow's milk, or eat eggs but I still occasionally enjoy honey (specifically from local Black owned farms) & still eat desserts made with milk & eggs. My husband just started back his plant based diet & my daughter is not plant based. I have been able to consistently manage my diet in this blended food household. I don't force this on them because I want them to appreciate & experience joy in their food just like I do. Forcing restrictions add stress to eating & creates a negative food experience. I just set my boundaries which were that I stopped cooking animal products. If they wanted it, my husband knows how to cook it. Most times, he didn't because he was busy with his work schedule & they loved what I cooked.

I'm excited that you are here with me on this journey. I'm here to create excitement around enjoying vegetables & all things plant based. It doesn't matter if you still eat meat, have no interest in a fully plant based diet, if you are vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, or whatever. Just bring your curiosity & let's enjoy food together.