Pharmacy student Deanna Wung grows vegetables to promote good diet - Fayetteville Observer

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By Chick Jacobs^[1]

Staff writer

Deanna Wung summed it up perfectly: medicine, when needed, is good.

Not needing medicine is better.

Wung, a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, knows a lot about the healing powers of medicine. But why, she wondered, did so many need the drugs in the first place?

"I figured there had to be a better way," she said.

The result, on display at Southern Regional Area Health Education Center's offices on Owen Drive, is literally a ground-breaking blend of nutrition and common-sense diet to help at-risk patients.

Nestled between the family medicine building and administrative offices, the landscape has been taken over by tomatoes, zucchini and cabbages - a far cry from the usual plants seen around offices.

That's because the health center's "Farmacy" is a far cry from the usual medical solution to diseases such as hypertension and high cholesterol. The flowers blossoming in the walkway behind the offices will give way to vegetables and fruits - and, Wung hopes, education for many who now rely on medicine.

Wung has organized a "food as medicine" project at the center during her semester rotation in Fayetteville. The mission, she says, is to promote awareness and access to healthy food as part of the battle against obesity, hypertension and other health issues.

"I noticed that many of the health issues we see appear to be related to diet," Wung said. "Statistics bear this out. In Cumberland County, 56 percent of the restaurants are fast-food. Only 14 percent of all adults in North Carolina meet the recommended minimum intake of fruits and vegetables.

"Many people don't know how important diet is to health. Others know but are limited in access. In Cumberland County, 16 percent of the low-income population doesn't have convenient access to grocery stores to get the proper food.

"There are so many issues involved. But I thought that there had to be a better way to help."

Her solution: introduce proper diet with healthy food as the first line of defense against chronic disease. By increasing the number of patients receiving a proper diet and reducing their dependence on medicine, she said, the per capita cost of health care could also be reduced.

"If the health problems are reduced or removed, then the costs are reduced," she said. "The biggest challenge is helping people eat right."

That's where the Farmacy program hopes to make a difference. Using a twofold approach, the program spokesmen say they hope to improve healthy food access to the community and increase awareness of proper diet for patients and staff.

Monthly "food as medicine" programs at the health center will demonstrate how to grow healthy food and properly prepare it. Already a "farmers market," sponsored by the group, is open to the public on Friday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. next to the offices.

"The keys are access, affordability and familiarity," Wung said. "There are many people who have never had fresh produce. The number of farms in North Carolina is decreasing, and the number of people who have a link to that agricultural past is decreasing, too.

"This program, hopefully, will show them (not only) how to grow the food, but why. And as they do so, they will become healthier."

To learn more

For more information on the Southern Regional Area Health Education Center's Farmacy program, call 339-7315 or email renee.reichart@sr-ahec.org.

References

1. ^{^} By Chick Jacobs (www.fayobserver.com)