Be a Locavore, Eat Sustainable Foods
A lot has been written recently about eating sustainable foods and the locavore
movement. In addition to numerous articles written worldwide, there is The 100 Mile
Diet: A Year of Local Eating, by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. The book chronicles
their quest to eat only foods that grown or raised within 100 miles of their home. Barbara
Kingsolver and her family go on a similar quest, and spend a year homesteading,
growing their own produce, raising their own animals for eggs and meat, making their
own cheese, and buying things they cannot from local markets. The Kingsolver’s year
of homesteading is chronicled in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and is a highly
recommended read.
Eating sustainable foods and local foods is eating foods that leave little carbon impact, or
carbon footprint, and do not cause major damage to the ecosystem, like fruits, vegetables,
grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. It also means eating foods in season, which is when they
are at their nutritional peak. A peach grown in Georgia in the summertime, during peach
season, eaten two or three days after it is picked will have greater nutritional content than
that of a peach grown in Argentina in January, which then spends a week in transit and by
the time it gets to you is mealy, has no taste, and costs two dollars per peach.
The sustainable foods movement is everywhere, Yale University even has a sustainable
foods project complete with a community vegetable garden. A highly recommended
website is www.sustainabletable.org, their site teaches consumers about the importance
of sustainable agriculture, food related issues, and other things on both local and national
levels. Ask at your local health food store or supermarket about where fresh foods such
as dairy products, meat, eggs, and produce come from. Locally raised animals tend be
raised in smaller farms, are given antibiotics only when necessary, and without the use of
hormones. The animals tend be free range and grass fed, which means they get to walk
around and graze, so they are healthier, and produce healthier meat.
The locavore movement, or local food movement, promotes eating locally grown foods
that come from within a certain radius of where you live, usually 100 miles, but some go
as far as 250 miles, depending on where they live. Common exceptions to this are coffee,
chocolate, and spices, in which case fair trade versions from local importers are usually
bought. The best places to find local foods are at farmers markets, through community
supported agriculture (CSA), community gardens, and local food co-ops.
Because people eat food grown or raised within a certain distance it cuts down
significantly on the amount of processed foods they eat. This increase on consumption of
local foods greatly increases the amount of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains
eaten, which creates a much more healthy diet and healthier lifestyle in general, including
weight loss, lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar, and just feeling better.
Keywords: sustainable foods, locavore movement, 100 mile diet, farmers market,
community supported agriculture
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The Flexitarian Diet
The Flexitarian Diet, by Dawn Jackson Blatner, is a flexible lifestyle based the author’s
five-be-five flex plan to incorporate more vegetarian foods into the diet. The program
promotes eating a mostly vegetarian diet, with mostly being the keyword because meat,
fish, and chicken can certainly be eaten, hence the term flexitarian. The author provides
35 sample meals and snacks to make five weeks worth of menus, including recipes
and shopping lists. Blatner emphasizes that exercise is an important part of her healthy
lifestyle, and to take things one step at a time. She emphasizes that even small changes
are important changes, because altogether, they add up to big changes over time. The
Flexitarian Diet is recommended for anyone who wants to eat like a vegetarian most
of the time, but is not ready to, or does not want to give up meat, fish, and chicken
altogether.
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What’s the Deal with Chia Seeds?
They’re not just for growing pets, that’s for sure. Chia seeds have been eaten by the
Aztecs, Mayans, and Native Americans for their powerhouse nutritional content for
years. Endurance runners eat them for stamina because their ability to absorb up to
twelve times their weight in water causes slower carbohydrate breakdown for sustained
energy during digestion. They have almost 200mg of calcium in one serving of seeds,
almost four and a half grams of protein, a whopping ten grams if fiber (mostly soluble),
and they are an excellent source of Omega 3 essential fatty acids with 4.9 grams, more
than twice that of flax seeds and some fish. Chia seeds are full of antioxidants. Chia flour
can be used to replace wheat flours to make foods gluten free. When mixed with water,
chia seeds form a gel that can be used as a thick drink called “chia fresca,” and it can also
as egg substitute. To make egg substitute, put three tablespoons of chia seeds in one cup
of water, let it sit for about 15 minutes, ¼ of a cup equals one egg.
Tags: 100 mile diet, community supported agriculture, farmers market, locavore movement, sustainable foods
