By Mickey Dunaway

Reprinted with Permission by Currents Magazine | Mar 12, 2025| Cornelius, NC.

How many diets have you tried? Four? Half Dozen? More? How many can you say were successful? One?None?
 
Dieting is damn hard. Perhaps because it is just too difficult to stay on a diet that is inflexible, leaves you hungry, and not very pleasing to your palate; therefore, you give it up. Breaking any habit is difficult, and perhaps the hardest is to break dietary habits.
 
If you guessed that the above “diet-tribe” describes my own journey with food, you’d be right. But things have changed, and I want to tell you about them. 

. . . . .

I grew up in the deep South, 20 miles west of Mobile, Alabama. If it were Sunday dinner, it might be fried chicken, but always with biscuits! Oh my! I   loved those biscuits. Growing up on Southern cuisine is about as far removed as one can get from the Mediterranean Diet or any of its iterations. Thus, making it hard to switch.

. . . . .

When we moved to Charlotte in 2005, as a professor, my activity level decreased, I was much more sedentary, and my weight gradually increased until my primary care physician alerted me to the impending health dangers. I tried to follow his diet suggestions but had little success until I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and the worst—atrial fibrillation and diabetes II.  

I was in a mess, and as my doctor emphasized one more time that I had to diet, I took dieting seriously.

. . . . .

My wife (who also has a heart stent) and I stumbled into a different way of dieting that still met the doctor’s expectations. 

First, we eliminated as much sugar as possible. No soft drinks of any kind. Research has shown that diet drinks have much the same effect on health as their full sugar originals. We started drinking water with our meals instead of sweet tea. And, where we might have had a soft drink on the patio while doing a crossword, we now have sparkling water.

Second, white bread—or as we call it in the South, light bread—had to go. Whole wheat, when we have bread, is our option, and in small amounts.

Third, we try to eat fresh all year. In the spring and summer, it is not hard to find local farmers’ markets. After the fresh vegetables have disappeared, we eat fresh, if not local, vegetables found in our grocery stores. 

Fourth, we eat quality food where we know its source. For example, we source our seafood from Flying Fish Seafood, located at 216 Eden St in Davidson. 

Our fishmonger explains his mission in these words: 

[Our seafood] doesn’t come to us in pre-cut or processed fillet, nor has it been sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be sold & shipped by a sales staff. Our seafood is caught by NC fishermen and sold off the boat by NC fishermen every week.

To get on their email list, send your email to  1flyingfishseafood-gmail.com@shared1.ccsend.com. If you would rather not drive to North Carolina, I am pretty sure these days you can find fresh fish seller not too far from where you live. After all, our guy drives three hours to almost to Wilmington every week. He is dedicated to his buyers and the boat captains from whom he buys fresh fish. We never know what he will have each week until he sends us his weekly newsletter.

How can you tell if the fish is fresh? The fishmarket doesn’t smell fishy. And recently I have read that if you buy whole fish, the fish’s eyes are not cloudy. The second way may be true, but our fishmonger’s place of business has never smelled fishy or shrimpy.

These days, we eat seafood three times a week in a variety of recipes—most simple with mainly salt and pepper as our condiments. Fresh seafood tastes different when it is fresh, and we know its origin.  Importantly, it does not smell fishy! Fresh seafood never does.

Our local fishmonger’s offerings are not cheap. However, we have concluded that knowing we are eating fresh NC seafood is worth the price, because the catch comes from guaranteed, sustainable waters of North Carolina.

. . . . .

Because eating fresh is costly, we have also made a bargain with ourselves to eat less of these resources. We have found that three to four ounces of fresh seafood satisfies our cravings, because fresh always tastes better! A typical supper plate is three to four ounces of meat or fish, a fresh vegetable, and a salad.  

We also believe strongly in supporting our local farmers if at all possible. Like the local fishmarket I mentioned above, I can bet you have a local or county Farmers’ Market near to you. The fresh veggies in grocery stores these days are definitely better than any time before, but give me a peach from a farm I know rather than from California.

Finally, what about dessert? For me, it’s usually a seasonal fruit, which I also snack on during the day if I get hungry before meals. If you give up sugar, I promise you as my GP promised me back when, you will find the fruit tastes twice as sweet, and it adds needed fiber to your diet in a most pleasurable way.

. . . . .

The essence of our stumbled-into-diet-success is found in four lines easy to remember:

Eat Fresh.

Eat less. 

Eat well. 

Walk, Walk, Walk.

. . . . .

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

-Ancient Greek Physician Hippocrates.