Is food your friend or foe? Simple steps make the difference

Last fall, Shirley went to her feast day at Acoma Pueblo, stuffing herself with too much corn, like always. But over the next few weeks, the 81-year-old retired homemaker was increasingly uncomfortable and one morning she woke up with a numb leg. When the feeling came back, it was all pain. After living more than 42-years with diabetes, neuropathy had set in.

“I got really scared last September because I thought OK, this is the sign that I’m leaving this earth,” she says.

But then Shirley’s son found an organic fast-food restaurant called Bedrock Kitchen. He took her there and she got the avocado toast and loved it. So, she started eating it every day for lunch and dinner. Sometimes, she’d also get the baked crispy chicken strips cut up over a salad. The pain faded and she began walking more and more. When she finally got in to see her doctor after about eight months, her A1C levels were at 5%, that of a normal person without diabetes after more than a decade of levels of more than double that. She’s now off her diabetes medicine completely.

“I grew up eating all natural foods on the pueblo,” she says. “It wasn’t until I came to the city that I got diabetes. We all need natural food!”

Shirley is one of 94 million Americans who consumed organic foods in 2020 and 76% of whom say they were driven by health concerns. U.S. organic food consumption is increasing on average 8% annually, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. And so is the food industry supporting those healthier eaters.

Bedrock Kitchen on 4th St. NW sits across the street from a McDonald’s and a KFC. That is by design, says Rhoby Schempp, Bedrock’s owner. “In my mind, we will outlast them,” she says. She imagines people driving down the street looking one way with the devil on their shoulder urging them to get the fast food, and the other way, the angel urging them towards Bedrock.

Only, they need not struggle; though organic, her grab and go foods are delicious. How do blueberry waffles sound? You would never know this dish is vegan and gluten free. Vegetarians can dig into a gratifying dish of Chevre Pasta Primavera made with Silver Leaf Farms basil pesto and imported Italian pasta. Meat eaters can satisfy their cravings with spicy beef or chicken fajitas. Menu items, which are prepared from scratch using organic ingredients from 13 local farms, are prepackaged daily.

"What I believe is going to happen is more people are going to get more sick, more allergies, be more medicated," says Schempp. "They're going to not feel good on that medication. Really, the most healing thing for your body is to eat true, unadulterated foods and get nutrients into the body."

A couple of months into her avocado toast diet, Shirley went back to one of her favorite fast-food joints. “I missed it, and I thought let’s try it again,” Shirley says. Her leg immediately swelled up “and I got kind of sick from it. And for that was it: that ended everything.” Shirley is organic for the rest of what she now believes will be a very long life.

A full menu is available at bedrock-kitchen.com or stop in at 5333 Fourth Street NW from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday to see everything the kitchen has to offer.

Have questions? The kitchen can be reached at 505-545-9460.

Is food your friend or foe? Simple steps make the difference