Read the original article by Jennifer Munoz at https://wgxa.tv/news/local/a-mothers-healthy-lifestyle-turns-into-a-business

Thursday, February 9th 2017

COCHRAN, Ga. — The food we give our children can have a great impact on their health. Ginger Butts from Cochran changed her families diet and that lead to a new career in producing whole wheat flour.

When Ginger Butts’ two boys were young she found out both her sons had asthma and one of them had ADHD tendencies.

“I couldn’t stand the meds that my babies were on and through a lot of research God gave me wisdom to treat my children nutritionally,” said Butts

Butts ditched the heavy medication and went all organic. After research she even found out how to make her own milled whole wheat flour.

“I purchased a residential mill and I would mill grains into flour and I would make all of our baked foods,” Butts said.

This became her lifestyle. For her, going organic worked.

We spoke with a registered dietitian, Millie Smith at the Medical Center Navicent Health about the Butts family. She said unfortunately there is not enough evidence to prove that going organic can cure pre-existing health conditions.

“There is a lot of anecdotal stories of folks who have seen pretty dramatic increases as far as benefits for their family but as far as being a lot of research and science that evidence is not there,” said Smith.

Smith does agree eating healthier can change children’s behavior and attention span.

“Certainly avoid added processed foods and processed sugar and really seeking to increase the number of fruits and vegetables and really good lean sources of protein in your child,” said Smith.

But this change in habit lead to another change for the Butt’s family. Five years ago Bleckley County Public Schools knew she milled her own four from her husband’s wheat farm so they approached her for a special project.

“She said that she wanted his wheat milled into my flour for the week of feed my school so they could make rolls with it,” Butts said.

The Feed My School program is an annual one week program where schools showcase locally produced food.

“We use the homegrown wheat to make the rolls at the school, we are using the milk that is from Georgia, chicken fingers that are from Georgia. We really concentrate on using Georgia products,” said Kelly Green, the Nutrition Director at Bleckley County Public Schools.

Butts bread rolls were such a success she started her business out of her backyard. Now she supplies Bleckley County Schools with whole wheat milled flour every month.

“And I go into the schools and teach the staff how to make light fluffy rolls and they are also surprised when they see whole wheat can be yummy,” said Butts.

She uses her story to inspire kids to eat healthy and become entrepreneurs.

“I’m very proud of the school district who knows the power of nutrition and do extra work to make it happen,” said Butts.

Her business Back to the Basics 101 provided whole wheat flour to eight different school districts in Georgia. The flour she provides is different from the one on the store shelves.

“I take the berry and I put it in the mill and I flip a switch and it comes out whole virgin you can still see the specs in it,” Butts said.

With this process children are getting all the nutrients found in wheat.

“The way we eat carries over into adulthood and a lot of the habits we try to break as adulthood are deep seated habits that we learned and taught from childhood,” said Butts.

Ginger Butts is now in the works of opening up a center where people can go and see advice on going all natural and take the first steps in living a healthier lifestyle.