Tobie Blanchard

Walking through the woods on his weekend hunts was no walk in the park for Jason Wheat. After steadily gaining weight during his 40s, Wheat found the trek up the hills of his hunting area hard to manage. Even putting on his hunting boots felt burdensome.

“That was when I knew I’ve got to make changes,” Wheat said.

Wheat, who has diabetes, knew he would have to break his fried food habit but didn’t know how best to go about it. He met with his doctor and enrolled in the LSU AgCenter’s Dining with Diabetes five-part series in Clinton.

“I was all in,” Wheat said. “I went and committed myself to it.”

AgCenter Nutrition and Community Health (NCH) agent Layne Langley taught the series of classes Wheat took.

“The class goes through meal planning and prep, how to read food labels, portion size, how do you count carbs, what is a carb, everything that deals with diabetes,” Langley said.

Early changes Wheat made included limiting his portions, adding in more vegetables and learning to read food labels to make better choices.

“The biggest thing that I took from it was the nutritional values that are on the labels of the products — how to read those, how to decide what's better for me and what's not,” he said. “You know, what’s the good and bad?”

For Wheat’s class, Langley recruited Karlyn Gerald, a registered nurse. Gerald serves as the remote patient monitoring coordinator for RKM Primary Care, a health clinic serving rural communities like Clinton. Her main role is to help patients with unmanaged hypertension or diabetes monitor blood pressure or blood sugar at their homes.

“I love to educate patients on their comorbidities, to see patients successfully achieve a better life because of the education provided is so rewarding,” Gerald said. “It makes me feel like I am doing something right and beneficial to patients’ well-being.”

In addition to medical advice and nutrition education, the classes also include cooking demonstrations and tastings so participants like Wheat could experience new foods. Wheat is a self-proclaimed picky eater and isn’t always open to new foods.

“If it didn’t come over on the Mayflower, I didn't need it,” he joked. “I didn't hear the pilgrims talking about kale or things like that. They talked about corn and potatoes and green beans.”

Wheat started with his first class in September and, while he admitted kale will never be part of his diet, he has since incorporated changes in his eating habits and the results are striking. He has lost 45 pounds, significantly lowered his A1C, which measures blood sugar levels, and lowered his blood pressure.

“Everything has gotten a lot better. I'm really excited about my overall health right now. I'm in my 50s, and I have plans to be around for a few years longer.”

And those walks in the woods?

“It has made a big difference in me being able to stay out in the woods longer, cover more territory than I used to, and I’m not nearly as winded. It’s also easier to put my boots on, too, so that has been a big help.”

The AgCenter offers nutrition classes in communities throughout the state. NCH agents also work closely with leaders, health care providers and partners to take an innovative community-based approach to changing the environments where people eat, live, shop, work, learn and play to help individuals and families adopt the nutrition and physical activity principles. This is all aimed at lowering obesity rates across the state.

“Our goal is educating people, whether it be on diabetes, hypertension or general nutrition. Helping them realize they can make changes in their diets and habits even if in small steps is important to me,” Langley said. “I want them to know they are not alone in making changes. I want my clientele to live a long and healthy life.”

Tobie Blanchard is the director of AgCenter Communications.

This article appeared in the winter 2025 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.

Jason Wheat lost 45 pounds following principles he learned in the LSU AgCenter Dining with Diabetes class. With his lifestyle changes, Wheat has seen dramatic improvements in his health and well-being. Before photo at left provided by Jason Wheat and after photo by Tobie Blanchard