Green Your Diet
Plant, Shop, Clean, Eat, Compost, Store, Recycle, Repeat
Maybe you’re already eating clean and green. . .or maybe you’re a little bit overwhelmed at what that all means! Do you have to throw out all food that comes in packages? Do you really have to grow your own? Is it better to buy organic or buy local? There are so many questions to be answered and evaluated based on your own healthful lifestyle. But each of us has the responsibility to take stock on where we are today and make an effort to participate in a couple—or many—small ways to impact the health of our bodies and the health of our environment, too!
Spring cleaning time is also a great time for spring greening. Here’s a primer on how you can green your diet.
Plant a garden.
There’s nothing greener than planting, growing, picking and eating vegetables from your own garden. Talk about healthy! You get to spend time outdoors, while saving time and money by not having to buy all your salad fixin’s. This is as local and seasonal as it gets. Go to a local nursery or check online to see what grows well in your area. Start simple with some green leafies, tomato plants, cucumbers and garden herbs. You don’t need a lot of space or know-how to find your green thumb.Shop local.
Nothing’s more local than your backyard, but these days there are even more options when it comes to eating local in your area. Both Farmer’s markets and CSAs (Community Support Agriculture - where you buy a share of produce) are increasing every year bringing us closer again to food that’s grown and raised nearby. In fact, there are more than 4,000 farmer’s markets throughout the U.S. today—increasing by nearly 50% since only a decade ago. Certain restaurants are focusing more on local providers which bring them fresher foods, often with better flavor and lower prices, too. Even larger food markets are catching the wave, interested in keeping up with what shoppers want. Check out localharvest.org to find farms, markets, and other resources for foods grown closer to you. And don’t forget to bring your own shopping bags—reusable cloth bags are sturdy and green—to carry those local foods home.Clean green—your food and your home.
This may seem obvious, but sometimes the idea of green is also associated with clean. While greener foods—organic and from more sustainable farming methods—are cleaner for the environment, they still need a good washing before biting in. Organic fertilizers can still harbor bacteria that can make you quite ill if you don’t wash your veggies. A good rinsing is often all it takes with fruits and veggies, while recent research suggests we actually should not wash our poultry since it can spread bacteria to the sink, plates and counter surfaces (proper cooking will kill any bacteria). Do you need one of those special—and expensive—vegetable washing sprays? No. They have not shown to be any better than using water to wash vegetables and fruit, but they have shown to do a good job toward cleaning out your wallet! Clean green bonus: start green cleaning your home too. Look for environmentally friendly cleaning products to minimize your personal exposure to harmful and toxic chemicals in your home.Eat more plant foods and less meat.
There’s no easier way to green your diet than tipping the scale in favor of plant foods and away from meat. It’s good for you and good for the environment: in fact, it takes about 16 pounds of grain to produce a single pound of beef. That’s a lot of calories that could be healthfully divvied up to many mouths! Eating more plants and less meat doesn’t mean you have to become a complete vegetarian—unless of course you want to—but it does mean trying to build more fruits and veggies, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains into your every day. Aim for one vegetarian day each week. The SuperFoodsRx Diet (Rodale Publishers) suggests you ‘go veggie’ every Wednesday to anchor your week and help you feel well-nourished and clean. And some groups encourage a ‘meatless Monday’. Just take a break from meat, poultry and fish once in a while and build up your veggie repertoire.Eat organic when you can and you’re not only eating greener for your body but the environment, too. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to help minimize exposure to pesticides and shop safer.
Eat hormone-free, antibiotic-free in your poultry and dairy when you can.
That means greener eating for you and the environment. And when it comes to fish, eat lower on the food chain to protect yourself from heavy metal contamination, like mercury found concentrated in big fish like shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish and albacore tuna.See the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch List and their new Super Green List and eat only those fish that are healthy and safe for you and not being over-fished.
And while you’re eating green, that means eating seasonally, too. It can be so much fun—and somewhat amazing if you haven’t checked in a while—to find what’s in season in your area. You can rediscover seasonal cuisine by going to the farmer’s market or checking out the Slow Foods movement in your area and ediblecommunities.org.
For some great reading on eating with the seasons and cooking in season, too, check out Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta: Recipes from the World Famous Spa by Deborah Szekely and Deborah Schneider and also How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table by acclaimed food journalist and L.A. Times Food Editor Russ Parsons.
