Corey McDaniel
Owner, The Food Architect
My name is Corey McDaniel, also known as The Food Architect. I am a classically trained Chef turned alkaline Vegan committed to the enhancement of my community through the proper preparation of fresh flavorful plant-based soy-free dishes, Yoga (physical fitness), and most importantly public service. In 2011 I graduated from the Chef's Academy becoming a Certified Chef. I had always loved food and believed I was a health nut (due to my sports and weightlifting background) until I really learned more about food. Becoming a chef showed me the old saying was true, "a chef is a person’s first doctor". The new knowledge I gained of food opened up a new world of understanding. Now seeing the affect food choices and availability has on a community mentally and physically, I have made it my personal goal to be a "doctor" to those that need help. I have been fortunate to work at a number of restaurants across the country. I helped open Wala in Detroit, MI in 2012, and then worked in Atlanta and Savannah, GA until returning back to Indianapolis to open a food truck in 2014. From working in this industry I would often encounter homeless people hanging out by the dumpsters. It was against restaurant policy to give them food we were throwing out due to insurance issues. So even if people were waiting for food, we would have to place the food in dumpsters, and then let the homeless people get it out. It was sad to see. It seemed to literally take their dignity away. I vowed when I started my own business things would be different. In 2014 I started a feed the homeless initiative. For over 3 1/2 years now I have tried my best to feed 50-75 of our homeless residents each week. The cost for me to do this is approximately $1.75/person. I am paid each week for my time and energy by the love and gratitude exchanged from my homeless friends and the universe alike....and nothing else. I realized a long time ago, the distance between the “have” and “have nots” is not as big as we would like to believe. Each of us are just a few checks from being homeless ourselves. We must appreciate what we have been blessed with and through that, do our part to be a blessing to others. In 2011 I started to look deeper into the food I was prepping and preparing due to prior health issues. In 2005 I was diagnosed with MRSA. After my initial treatments I believed I was “cured”, only to find that whenever I ate chicken a MRSA outbreak would follow. I subsequently learned that the hormone-filled, pesticide-eating chicken I once loved was now the primary source of my problems. I started to notice issues with the quality of meat products bought, cooked and distributed by major suppliers. At first this really surprised me until I remembered something my Granddaddy once told me, “Just because you can eat it, doesn’t mean you should.” I had always been a picky eater. At around 10 years old I stopped eating chicken off the bone. I remember biting into a drumstick once; there was something about me ripping the flesh away and seeing the muscle fibers and tendons pop that grossed me out. At the age of 15 I stopped eating pork due to the influence of Malcolm X and the understanding of how close a pig’s structural make-up is to a human’s. By the time I was 17 years old, I was mentally ready to become a vegetarian, however my need to gain muscle mass to play college football stifled that thought. I was told without eating meat I would never get the vitamins and minerals I needed to excel physically on the field. It took years for me to disprove this idea. Each medicine used today is derived from a natural substance, even antidepressants. Chefs were the world’s first doctors and food was man’s first medicine. It is a known fact that feelings are created by chemical changes in the body. That’s right, your anger, love, lust, and even depression can be simplified into a chemical formula. That’s why in today’s time so many people dealing with depression are on some form of medication to help. Over the past 10 years a large and ever-growing body of evidence shows a well-balanced 100% plant-based diet is ideal to reach optimum human health. Wholegrains, beans, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts are foods that provide all the essential nutrients that we need not just to survive, but to reach the bodies and mental clarity most long for. Under the parameters of our western diets, we eat too much protein. Excessive protein consumption has been linked to a number of serious health problems. Studies show that balanced vegan diets provide sufficient amounts of protein, and increase the consumption of the fruits and vegetables needed to maintain and increase our overall health. You have been lied too. You have been taught wrong. The reason we, as a whole, suffer so much mentally, physically, and emotionally are due to the way we have been taught to eat. There is a reason our country’s food and drug regulations are handled by the same administration. In 1970, Henry Kissinger said, “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.” Throughout Urban, inner-city, lower income, brown and black neighborhoods, we are struggling. We are eating ourselves into psychosis, depression, obesity, hyperactivity, sexual deviancy, and more due to a lack of education and resources. In too many cases we are unable to engage in and maintain healthy relationships due to chemical coaching from the food we eat. We are being fed and medicated in a manner that leads to declining behavior placing us at the mercy of a bias system. There’s an epidemic today of our children being labeled “special needs” and “problem kids” due to overstimulation and altered reasoning resulting from everyday sugar-filled food choices. We are a nation full of drug addicts, addicted to salt, sugar, flesh, blood and the emotional connection to them. In our current economy, Illness causing foods, the doctor visits, medications, and the insurance associated with it is needed, and looking at our current food standards is wanted. Sickness is big business. In the same manner the slave master made money off the blood, sweat, and tears of my ancestors, this food/medical industry today is doing same thing. Yet what was once forced on us we now happily accept and perpetuate ourselves. Knowledge is not power. The application of knowledge however is. Once you know better it’s your responsibility to do better.
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