Thursday, September 25, 2008

Eating is more about you, it's about the world.


When most of us begin to diet or be more aware of our food intake, our purpose is to improve ourselves.
However, few of us change our diets to make them more friendly to our earth.
Why is that? Why is our way of thinking all about "me"? And not about "us" or "the world"?
The nice thing however, is that we can eat for both. We can achieve our body composition goals while still bettering our planet.
And, eating "Green" as it should be termed, does not have to mean being a vegetarian or only paying for high-priced speciality foods.
You can make foods choices that are friendly to our environment that are easy, but that will also help you change your body composition for the better.
For example:
When choosing fruits and vegetables - become a Localvore. Choose those that are found in your immediate area and that vary with the seasons. Buy from local farmers, support Farmer's markets, read the label on the fruits and vegetables in your grocery store and try to buy those that come from no farther than a 150 mile radius. The benefit of farm-fresh products, is that they are usually less preserved, fresher, and then organic. This equates to better taste as well!
When choosing meat, poulty, and eggs - again, buy those that come from local farms or that support animal-friendly farm practices such as free-range animals and no hormone useage. For example, the goat yogurt that I eat comes from a very animal-friendly farm.
REDWOOD HILL FARM & CREAMERY, based in California makes the goat products that I choose to eat. I recently emailed them to tell them how much I love their products and this is what they had to say:
Thank you so much for your wonderful comments! They are the best compliments that we can get! We are so happy to know that our products have met your expectations. It warms our heart when we get comments like yours. Lets us know we are on the right track:)

We have over 300 goats and they all have different names because they all have different personalities. They are amazing members if our family thatwe treat with love and respect and we can taste it in the yogurts, cheeses and kefir.
Yes, you read that right: this farm loves their goats so much that they've named them and call them family! They respect their goats, and the goats respect them back.
When choosing animal foods, like goat dairy, it's best to find companies and farms like Redwood Hill who really care. This translates to less animal cruelty in our world to produce foods that we love and benefit from.
When choosing all other foods - remember that you're looking out for the sustainability of our world. You're avoiding overpackaging, which contributes to waste, you're saying no to chemicals and additives, and you're not supporting cruelty to animals. Buy purchasing earth-friendly, organic, farm-raised, and natural foods, you're helping your waistline while preserving the world for our future population.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You are right, and it is great to see major supermarket chains carrying more and more organics and green items. What most of us don't give much consideration to is that we vote everytime we spend money. We tell companies what we want and how we want it- so buy green and companies will go green!