Vallejo Healthy Food Fest 2018 planned for Sunday

Those who attend the 3rd annual Vallejo Healthy Food Fest on Sunday will be fed for free all day with items like pulled pork, sliders, pizza, mac and cheese, pancit, and other yummy dishes, Vallejo Together founder and event organizer Maria Guevara said.

Only thing is, all of them will be vegan — plant based — no animal products whatsoever, she said.

The idea is to show folks that eating healthy can not only turn your life around, but that it can do that and still be tasty and easy to do, Guevara said.

It’s not an easy message to get across, she said.

“The whole idea is that different chefs will show people that they can recreate their favorite meat dishes with vegan ingredients,” she said. “They’ll be able to taste a lot of the stuff and it could change their minds.”

Sponsored by the Food Empowerment Project, Sunday’s event, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Dan Foley Cultural Center, 1499 N. Camino Alto, in Vallejo, is free with proof of residency and $5 for non residents. Parking is free.

There will be kids’ activities tables, interactive booths, music, performances by Ballet Folklorico, Grateful Sirens, and AshEL, and free food, as well as cooking demonstrations, a raffle of cookbooks and crock pots and a special guest speaker.

Former NFL linebacker David Carter will tell about how he went from 300 painful pounds to pain-free, healthy and svelte by cutting animal products from his diet.

Now living in New York, the South Central Los Angeles native said at the peak of his football career he topped out at 320 pounds.

“I was 23, 24, and dealing with high blood pressure, tendinitis; I couldn’t push myself out of the bathtub; and all this while playing in the NFL,” Carter said. “This is not uncommon in the NFL. Everybody eats crazy all day long. It’s called ‘skinny-fat.’ I knew it wasn’t right. I was in so much pain.”

Carter said he happened to catch a documentary on TV, and it changed his life.

“I watched this documentary and heard how dairy products actually leaches calcium from your bones — doesn’t deliver it to your body at all,” he said. “Eating animal products sends our bodies into an instant state of inflammation that lasts about four hours. If you eat three meals like that a day, you’re inflamed all day.”

Unfamiliar with plant proteins, Carter said that he, like many American athletes, consumed large quantities of animal proteins, thinking it was good for him. This TV show made him rethink this.

“I was in a constant state of inflation all day,” he said. “After realizing this, I realized that my diet was causing my pain. I cleared out my refrigerator, and went all plant-based. I created my own meal plans and lost a lot of weight.”

Down to 250, Carter said his pain went away and his blood pressure dropped to normal levels.

“I don’t have to take any more pain killers,” he said.

And he’s maintained this while eating food he said he loves.

“I make vegan tacos, nachos, spaghetti, hamburgers,” he said. “I just tricked my taste buds, that’s all. It has the textures and the flavors I wanted.”

Calling himself a “food justice advocate,” Carter said his talk at Sunday’s event will also include his take on how food injustice was set up intentionally and continues that way today.

“I discuss how our food system is like it is — ‘red zoning’ — how resources like food, are distributed in our cities,” he said.

When the zoning systems used today originated in 1910, they were called ‘Negro Zoning Laws,’ and they grew from the Jim Crow laws of the South, and impacted all areas of life including housing, banking and others, Carter said.

In 1917, concern over the bigoted sound of the name, it was changed to the Racial Zoning Laws, and again in 1930, to the Red Zoning Laws — but all that changed was the name, he said.

The best way to combat the system is to be aware of it, he said.

Also on Sunday, chef and Vallejo Together volunteer, Lucille Henderson, plans to demonstrate how to turn mushrooms into a dish practically indistinguishable from pulled pork, she said. It’s a recipe she perfected though a process of trial and error.

“The trick is to slice the portabella mushrooms very thin,” she said.

She also specializes in making energy balls and jewelry that she sells as a fund raiser for Vallejo Together’s mobile unit that feeds people in homeless encampments around the city, she said.

“I’ve been doing this with Maria for 10 years, and I really love it,” she said. “I was feeding the homeless on my own before I found Vallejo Together — a wonderful group of people.”

Henderson, who had also formerly weighed in at 300 pounds, said she hopes people will learn enough at the event to make an easy, healthy change in their lives, like she did, having lost 85 pounds and resolving pre-diabetes and other health issues.

“I hope they come away knowing that a plant-based, vegan lifestyle can be really tasty and healthy,” she said.

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