The White Possum has been serving Smithville and DeKalb County for over 10 years now, with locals and tourist alike making their way to the restaurant that has a reputation for good food and a nice atmosphere. While the Covid-19 pandemic may have slowed the restaurant's patronage slightly over the past year, the eatery recently took some time off to not only make some cosmetic changes, but start a radically new menu.

Owner/operator Rawlin Vanatta said that the changes the restaurant has made comes not from necessity, but rather from his conscience and his faith in God. The restaurant has moved to what Vanatta says is a healthier menu that eliminates meat, dairy, and oils.

"We have remodeled, renewing the menu everything," Vanatta told the Smithville Review. "It was obviously a good time to do it, with the pandemic."

Vantatta told what had led to the drastic menu changes and how he hopes to help people lead healthier lives. "About six years ago, my cousin was eating really weird, or at least it seemed weird to me at the time. His dad had had a heart attack and he told me, 'I can prove to you how, through the scientific literature, that there is no reason anyone should ever have a heart attack, or have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.' I didn't believe him, but it got me to study it a little bit out of curiosity."

According to Vanatta, the research took on new meaning when health issues hit close to home. "My dad had digestive issues and acid reflux forever. He had it so bad that a couple of times he nearly died because of it. If acid reflux gets bad enough it will shut off your windpipe, and that's what happened."

"As I looked into this research, I found that so many different studies had been buried by the food industry. It was not good for the food industry as a whole, including my business, but I discovered these food secrets could help people. I shared it with my dad, and he lost 50 pounds, his high blood pressure went away, his arthritis went away, and all his digestive troubles just disappeared."

Vanatta said that his new found knowledge didn't stop with just helping his father. "Then I shared it with my father-in-law," he continued. "His pain in his knees were so bad that he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to keep mowing. He has a landscaping business and he had really high blood pressure, and then was diagnosed with diverticulitis. I sat him down and told him, 'I promise you that if you follow these food secrets, as I call them that they will fix you.' After about three months, he lost about 35 to 40 pounds, his knee pain went away, and his diverticulitis went away."

It was around that same time that Vanatta's son was born and according to him, it was then that he had an epiphany. "For a long time I struggled with what I had learned. I would see people coming into the restaurant and they would complain about going to the doctor, and that they had high blood pressure, or they had high cholesterol ... so many different things that it would eat at me. It felt to me as if I were keeping secrets. I was selling many of the foods that were causing these problems."

"After my son was born, I was looking down at him. I was in my rocking chair, and was praying, thanking God for giving me my son. Then, I felt really guilty. It was like a voice popped into my head and said, 'You're happy that you know this. How many other parents would want to know this?' It literally felt like bricks were hitting me on my back. I knew at that moment that I wouldn't be able to continue doing the restaurant the way I had been doing it."

According to Vanatta, the restaurant will eliminate the three most dangerous types of foods from its menu, but with alternative recipes some of customer's favorite dishes won't disappear. "The three most dangerous things that people consume is meat, dairy, and oils," Vanatta said. "A lot of people ask, 'Are we going vegan?' I don't like calling it vegan, because it's really not. I call this food hacking."

"I look at food, say for instance biscuits and gravy. It's made with flour and dairy. Instead of using the fats that are used in biscuits and gravy, I can use some plants that have types of fat in it too. I've experimented with different things and people can't tell a difference. Obviously, I can't reproduce a steak, but what I can do is reproduce barbeque, and nachos, make cheese sauces, and lasagna. I can make some of the best lasagna that people have ever eat in their life."

Vanatta said that while favorite dishes will still be available, new items will also be featured at the revamped restaurant. "Our menu has nachos, lasagna, in the spring we'll have a really big salad bar, fresh made smoothies at the bar where people can see the ingredients going into it. We also have burgers and fries, but not with real meat. We will not be serving animal products, and the only oil we will be using in the entire place will be used to fry our chips. Everything else will either be baked or done in a different way."

In the end Vanatta knows his changes are a gamble, but hopes that the people in the community will give it a chance. "Everyone that gives it a chance for more than a week, especially those that have health problems, they will be able to tell a difference. I'm not saying we will solve every health issue, but if you have digestive issues, or weight problems, you will see a difference. The results speak for themselves."

Having been open a couple of weeks, Vanatta has received many compliments and return customers.