For the health of it

By Catherine McGarry Miller
Photos by Erin Gebhart

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all know we should eat healthier. We Americans are overfed and undernourished and we know it. Still, to most of us, the words “healthy” and “tasty” seem incompatible. It’s Judy Mayer’s job to bridge that gap. As Nutritionist for Outpost Natural Foods, Mayer guides clients toward healthier lifestyles.

She is neither zealot nor evangelist. Personally, she’s a meat minimalist but not pure vegetarian. Her husband is a hunter who prepares his venison alongside her in their kitchen whilst she prepares her vegetables. They come together over side dishes, proving that vegetarians and meat-atarians can successfully coexist.

Mayer comes to her present position after many years in the retail grocery business. Her father died tragically young in a car accident when Mayer was just 12. It’s still tender ground. Her mother, an occupational therapist, did not remarry but raised her three children alone. From that young age, Mayer was impressed with her mother’s devotion to her children and her ability to keep food on the table, even with a very demanding schedule.

“My mother was a good cook and that’s all I knew. At home we ate the same 10 meals over and over again.” The menu included good old Sunday pot roasts drenched in gravy, broccoli swimming in butter, the “best pork roast ever,” tuna casseroles, fabulous pies and the “best sugar cookies in the world.” Still, it was a limited palette.
When she started a job at Red Owl at age 16, Mayer was amazed at the range of foods available. “My love of food came from that first job and working in retail groceries my whole life. I think I’ve worked for every chain. I love being around people and food. As a cashier you get to talk to a lot of people. You also see all the foods people are buying and all the foods they shouldn’t be buying. It really bothered me to see what parents were feeding their children and I experimented at home with recipes. Most people read magazines; I read cookbooks. I’ll take a good cookbook instead of a novel any day.”

At home, Mayer experimented with healthful alternatives. “I started adding more fiber, reducing fat and using whole grain instead of the white flour we all grew up with. We were always adding to our repertoire with recipes like cherry crisp with oatmeal crust with cherry pie filling – my kids still love it.”

Mayer started in management at Outpost 13 years ago. “Outpost helped me through school and helped me create my own job and I love it. Every day is different – I get to share my passion for good food and my mission is to get everyone to eat a healthy diet one step at a time.”

Her main duties are store tours, individual nutritional counseling, nutrition classes and cooking demonstrations at the store and in the community. For just $25 an hour, Mayer offers nutritional counseling sessions. Outpost members get one introductory session free. Teaching nutrition in a store, where the food is! What a concept! She helps nascent healthy eaters sort through the labyrinth of bulk foods and comes up with creative ways to use them.

“That’s the luxury of being in the store. I let them taste products, give them recipes, sit down and do a menu so I know they’re getting everything they need. There is more time prepping vegetables [than meat] but you can buy vegetables cut up or use frozen vegetables. It’s a lot easier for people to eat healthy these days. Packaged things like hummus make a fabulous snack.”

Her services are ideal for people with specific health-related food issues like allergies, diabetes and that all-too-common propensity for junk food. “We need to eat healthy, not just for today but for tomorrow,” Mayer avers. Get her going and Mayer spouts terms like antioxidants, phyto-chemicals, lycopene and beta-carotene. Easy for her to say, you’re probably thinking. But Mayer’s machinations for her clients are really quite manageable. She recommends starting with two vegetarian entrees per week. That could be a veggie burger or a frozen vegetarian dinner. Easier than pie actually (which is not all that healthy). VS