View Finder: TV Personality Andrea Beaman Visits Fairfield

View Finder: TV Personality 
Andrea Beaman Visits Fairfield

Presents healthy eating talk at Whole Foods

By Mike Lauterborn

(posted to Fairfield.Patch.com 6/30)

6/28/11

Fairfield, CT – Three dozen people turned out for a visit by TV personality Andrea Beaman to the new Fairfield Whole Foods Tuesday evening. Beaman is a healthy food enthusiast and host of “Fed Up”, which is aired on FiosTV, Dish Network and Frontier network. The object of her talk was to educate about seasonal foods. The stop-in was part of her “Unlock the Taste of Summer” Tour, which started last week in Providence, R.I. and was scheduled to wrap in Cambridge, MA, June 29. Besides Fairfield, the tour included two other state stops – Glastonbury and West Hartford.

While Beaman prepared a protein-packed Black Bean and Quinoa Salad, she spoke about how she came to be the healthy eating promoter that she is. “At 28, I was diagnosed with a thyroid condition and told by my doctor that I would need to take radioactive iodine the rest of my life,” she said. “Before I committed, I decided to change my diet, got off chemicals and junk food, and started to eat fresh food – organic, clean. Within four months, my body changed. My nails were stronger, hair shinier and I dropped 18 pounds.”

Beaman returned to the doctor and though she had made improvements, he still recommended she take the prescribed medicine. “I decided to keep on the diet,” she said. “It took two years to correct my condition. Now, at 43, I’m 15 years thyroid issue free.”

She did have one setback during that period, in 2006, when she was part of the popular “Top Chef” production. “Chefs are partiers,” she said. “We would go out drinking, partying, smoking. Within eight months, my thyroid went out again. I had trouble getting out of bed. I went back to the doctor, who said I had to go on the medicine. I was 37. He said, ‘You’re older, dieting won’t work.’”

Beaman went back to her healthy eating regimen and her thyroid went back to normal.

The salad Beaman was constructing is the perfect summer dish she said. “Salad is a cooling food,” she noted. “You will find you’re less lethargic.”

With regard to health overall, Beaman remarked, “When we eat food, it becomes our body – our hair, our skin, our teeth. You need to be careful about what you eat. When we get in harmony with the environment, the body reacts in amazing ways.”