Health & Fitness: Food for body and soul


World Peace Café
220 Hammond Dr., Suite 302
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
www.worldpeacecafeatlanta.com

R. Thomas
1812 Peachtree St. NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
www.rthomasdeluxegrill.net

Spice Market
W Hotel Midtown
188 14th St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30361
www.spicemarketatlanta.com

Eats
600 Ponce de Leon Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30307
www.eatsonponce.net

My partner had a grilled veggie sandwich with roasted red peppers and grilled portabella mushrooms, paired with savory warm lentil and mushroom soup — perfect and healthy on a chilly night. Other specials include Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie and Stuffed Acorn Squash. Most of the menu is organic. R Thomas has been open for more than 20 years and was one of Atlanta’s first restaurants to offer a juice bar, macrobiotic and raw food. It’s also a healthy carnivore protein palace for those building muscles. R Thomas has a very quirky hippie vibe and is open 24/7. I had the plump, grilled free-range chicken breast with garlic green beans and rosemary quinoa — this is a healthy low carb protein bomb.

You should really incorporate quinoa into your diet. It’s a seed derived from the Goosefoot plant, is very high in protein and a good source of calcium, iron and vitamin E. R Thomas also puts their quinoa or range chicken in a Thai bowl with a sauté of fresh veggies and cilantro with spicy peanut sauce.

The menu is huge with something for everyone, including basil tofu lettuce wraps with curry sauce, grilled salmon with soy ginger sauce, and my favorite PB&J smoothie with organic peanut butter, maple, strawberries and flax oil.

Treat yourself to the opulent Spice Market Thai/Pan Asian restaurant in the chic W Hotel in Midtown. The décor is stunning. In addition, for meatless Monday they now offer a fabulous Vegetarian Bento Box; choices include mushroom eggrolls, wok charred eggplant with sweet chili glaze, and spicy thai slaw with Asian pears and crispy shallots. I’m a carnivore but I think it’s great for your body and the environment to go meatless one or two days a week.

Eats on Ponce offers $7 budget healthy food if you get the jerk or lemon chicken and one of their scratch fresh veggies like a baked sweet potato or the collards that you spike with pepper sauce. Even cheaper is a $4.95 hearty bowl of chicken or turkey chili with some corn bread — pure guiltless comfort on a wintry night.

 

Top photo: Spice Market offers its new vegetarian bento box every Monday. (Courtesy Spice Market)