Local is Getting Healthier: Finnegan Frost

Berries from Aichele Farms, a local grower that provides berries to Finnegan Frost.

Once you stop eating packaged food, and highly processed food, and shipped-in Monsanto food, and modified-for-profit Frankenfoods, you really start to notice what is left:  Wholesome, authentic food.  If you pay attention even further, you will note which of those foods nourish you and which damage you. 

And you will begin to notice businesses like Finnegan Frost.  These folks are attempting to walk it back ... to get us back to a healthier paradigm for what a "treat" should really be.  A treat is delicious.  It is something we don't eat every day, but when we do, it is the highest quality possible, as local as possible, and as untreated/modified as possible.

Not an easy thing to do in our hyperpalatability-crazed, profit-motivated, convenience-driven food culture.  But when was much of anything worthwhile ever easy?  It's more effort to brave the hot sun, and the jostling elbows of the other shoppers at the farmers' markets, than to stroll unimpeded around an air-conditioned store.  But oh, the reward of that locally-grown produce!

Now, I know that frozen yogurt, even frozen yogurt with Finnegan's wonderfully quality ingredients, is a processed food.  But what a step in the right direction they are making.  They use fresh fruits and nuts, as locally-sourced as possible, and emphatically state in one ad I saw, "No Candy!"  These people are on the ball.  On their "Why it Matters" page, they say:

Consider these facts:

• 25.8 million people in the U.S. are affected with Diabetes
• Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States
• Diabetes is costing our country over $200 billion dollars a year.
• 35.7% of U.S. adults and 17% (or 12.5 million) adolescents are obese
• 300,000 people die annually from weight-related complications.

So, what's at the heart of these staggering health trends?  Nutrition.  While the fast food industry generates over $110 billion a year, Americans continue to get sicker. We must change our mentality toward food, or continue to face the consequences. Finnegan Frost aims to be a catalyst for change.

I will add:  Type 2 diabetes and obesity are in most cases preventable, and in many cases reversible, which makes them even more tragic as a cause of death, needless suffering, and out-of-control health care spending.

Finnegan Frost is located next to the Starbucks at Gage and Keene in Richland, behind Albertson's grocery store.

Considering Finnegan Frost's desire to use and promote local, fresh, real foods, I felt it was important to bring them to your attention so that their hard work and quality-oriented philosophy will be rewarded.  We need more businesses with these values.  I hope to find more, and when I do, I'll let you know here.