If you’ve wondered how God’s creation connects with good nutrition, you haven’t met Laura Pole.
The oncology nurse and nutritionist turned folk singer and recording artist can even make music about reading the labels on processed food. She can also do a good imitation of Elvis Presley on guitar.
Pole, who lives near Smith Mountain Lake but has been known to Roanoke Valley residents for her several specialties for more than 25 years, was one of four presenters at a recent Saturday conference , “Faith, Hope, Love and Deeds:Interfaith Proaction for Care of Creation.” The second annual event of its kind, it attracted about 50 persons from the religion and ecology communities to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Roanoke.
The meeting, which included several members of the Islamic and East Indian communities as well as representatives of a variety of Christian groups, was supported by several denominational regional bodies, Plowshare Peace Center, a group concerned about spirituality and ecology and individual Baptist, Presbyterian, United Methodist and Disciples of Christ congregations.
Under the broad theme of respecting God’s creation, the four speakers focused on corporate responsibility for combatting inhuman practices, understanding today’s complex medical issues, the new speciality of health maintenance within a congregation and Pole’s integration of care of the body through sound nutrition.
Participants ate lunch during the session; it provided an example of Pole’s teaching as she explained in the closing lecture after the meal. Prepared by Mary Bommarito of Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church, the food sent many diners back for second helpings of the simple meal of a meatless southern style chili, fresh salad, with “scratch-made” dressing, a fiber-rich muffin and desert of fresh strawberries topped with home-made whipped cream.
Pole, who works as a nutrition educator for an agency based in the Washington area, also spends considerable time using her professional skill as a cancer nurse and her natural gift of singing and playing folk music. Many have met her through Good Samaritan Hospice or have enjoyed her music in a group known as Trifokal .
Food, she told the conference participants, is more than nourishment of the body. “If you don’t take the time to eat right, you’ll have to take the time to be sick,” she noted. The enjoyment of food can be enhanced by its smell, taste and appearance, she said, pointing out “there’s no good or bad food…It’s not a panacea or a demon.”
The best food, Pole told her audience, is whole, fresh and natural. That means it’s not refined to get rid of the husk on grain, as has been done for years to make it seem more appealing. Eating an apple with its skin does “keep the doctor away,” an old saying had it. A clean baked potato skin provides fiber, and a whole orange is far more nutritious than jello with artificial coloring, she noted.
Is organic food naturally better? Yes, said Pole, if it has been grown without pesticides or chemical additives which are listed on the label but which it takes commitment to read. Even the common and healthful food peanut butter may contain much more than nuts.She views the corn-based fructose, once thought superior to cane sugar, as a major cause of the obesity epidemic, for it’s a major ingredient of such products as soft drinks and comercial baked goods.
But a shopper needs to use balance and common sense in buying organic, Pole pointed out. Often organic is more expensive and for that reason rejected by those who most need to better their diets. If purchased, it needs to be carefully rinsed, and, if possible, acquired locally where there’s more control over its origin. Food grown without pesticides tends to have more flavor because the plant can put all its effort into developing without having to fight off a certain weakening that chemicals produce, she said.
Finally, to enjoy food fully, it needs to be eaten at home in Pole’s view. A lot of the value of a family being together comes from mealtimes, a factor often missing in fast-paced America today.
