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View Winners → Little Green Forks is A Vegan’s Delight
Arcadia Weekly Sep 17, 2020
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Burger and fries. – Courtesy photo / Little Green Forks
The little plant-based food delivery service that has started a trend
By Terry Miller
We’ve heard about plant-based foods for a while now. Initially, it was thought of as a trend that wouldn’t last. However, consumers and businessmen and women have proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that plant-based foods are not only healthy but also incredibly delicious, if curated by the hands of creative chefs.
Plant-based burgers and other foods are a “thing” now at many restaurants around the world, including fast food joints. This indicates there is a desire to get away from meat and meat products, and the more one reads about nutrition you realize the importance of the phrase: you are what you eat.
Beyond Meat, Impossible Burger, and other companies have gone into the magical world of vegetarian delights and subsequently taken the stock market for quite a ride with their initial offerings. It has become so mainstream, that some supermarkets sell the plant-based foods and even have an area devoted to such.
What prodded the growth of Little Green Forks was a life-threatening heart attack which founder John Tanner suddenly had to contend with.
In October 2009, Tanner was taking his daily run around his neighborhood in Altadena when his heart went into full cardiac arrest. Tanner will be forever grateful for the immediate help and involvement of multiple people, from the neighbors who saw him go down, to the paramedics, to the ER staff and the cardiac specialists.
In 2012, shortly after his recovery from the heart attack that nearly cost him his life, Tanner, PhD, realized he needed a lifestyle change and started to do some extensive research into the importance of nutrition in correlation to overall health and well-being. Tanner was motivated and soon grew to understand the underlying cause of his heart disease and the connection of nutrition that reversed his condition and improved all his health markers.
Quinoa kale salad. – Courtesy photo / Little Green Forks
It began as a sort of experiment with his family but the newly anointed chef de jour found himself creating unique food for his wife and children. That quickly developed into a plan of action and he knew his thirst for nutritional knowledge outweighed his culinary talents and he hired talented, qualified chefs to continue his vegan vision. He was and still is very involved with the delicious offerings I tried last week.
Tanner admits that he was rather immersed in data supporting the importance of nutrition with health. With his high-tech background, Tanner’s research became more serious and subsequently he founded a nonprofit, NuSci Nutrition Science Foundation, and began speaking and teaching about the connection between nutrition and health, based on the information he had learned and motivated by his own story. He wanted to help people get healthy and stay healthy.
Post cardiac arrest, Tanner knew his new-found life depended on eating this way, so he started Little Green Forks to provide those he loves and cares about with healthy and tasty plant-based meals. This vision is what continues to inspire their continued growth.
Little Green Forks will happily deliver food and a catering service was formed in 2010. They make hearty and delicious whole-food, plant-based, low-fat entrees, soups and salads from hand-selected produce that will help keep you healthy and wanting to try every single menu item Little Green Forks has to offer.
Using environmentally-friendly packaging that can be placed into the oven, microwave, refrigerator, or freezer, the foods are plant based and purely vegan. No animal or animal by-products are ever used in this company.
The biggest threat to our health and well-being, according to Tanner, can be found in dairy products. As a cheese lover, I didn’t want to hear this, especially after I just bought pounds of some of the finest and malodorous Limburger in the world. However, I suppose with knowledge there is considerable power.
Tanner suggests trying potatoes. He’s not kidding. Depending on how you prepare the humble albeit lowly spud, you’ll be delighted to know how healthy the earthly delight is.
Tanner’s message of nutrition and wellness provides tools of coaching, small group support, and meal plans to help people make choices that will help them prevent and even reverse chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and many cancers and other diseases. For more information on Tanner Care or to sign up for one of their next programs, visit tannercare.com.
You may also be interested in nusci.org.
To see their menu and order from Little Green Forks visit littlegreenforks.com. To contact the company email contactus@littlegreenforks.com or call (626) 387-3675.
