This week was the host of World Environment Day, which got us thinking on how we could do our part foodie-wise in making a conscious effort to better the environment and world around us by eating green.
When I say eating green I don’t mean we all have to suddenly turn vegan or vegetarian but more the idea of thinking about where the food we’re about to eat comes from and how it’s produced. Eating green is an effort to find more ‘earth-friendly’ alternatives to avoid making bad choices too frequently.
1 Make sure you mix up your meals.
Balance out your weeks and alternate veggie meals and meat meals, particularly when it comes to red meats, too much of something is never good for anyone. why not even sneak in several vegan options? I like a steak as much as the next guy, but red meat is not beneficial if eaten daily and meat production is one of the largest contributors to our carbon footprint around the planet. So limit your intake, treat yourself once a week perhaps if you’re not ready or willing to ditch it completely.
2 Get all your 5 a day in!
Getting all your mix of veg, fruit, nuts etc can be daunting but it’s not that hard if you sit down and plan your week ahead, all you need is a mix of 5 earthly ingredients in your meals be it fresh tomatoes, lettuce, nuts or anything. As long as you strike that balance and give it a go you know you’re off to a good start.
3 Where is it from?
Something we’ve forgotten to ask or think about these days is where our food comes from! It’s so easy to just walk into the shop and pick up the first thing we see and put it in the basket, but do you know where it comes from? I’m not just saying this ethically because we should all know the difference between fair-trade, organic, free-range etc by now, but I’m talking geographically, the further your food has travelled the more of a carbon footprint that fresh little strawberry is going to have. Or those New Zealand clams when there’s perfectly good almejas at the local market. This is a strong eating green moment.
4 WATER WATER EVERYWHERE…. so why always from a bottle?
Drinking tap water has always had such a bad reputation but these days tap water is highly monitored and is sometimes even cleaner than bottled water, oh and let’s not even talk about the price! In comparison bottled water is almost 1000% more expensive per glass than tap water is… so you can have enough to drink (and get those required 3L a day) for next to nothing. Bottling, shipping and transporting bottled water requires a lot of energy, so when we talk sustainability tap water is much greener.
5 Que leche quieres!
Milk is a subject that I’ve seen pop up now again, actually how good is cow’s milk for you? Well apparently the answer is not very, aside from the benefits of calcium and vitamin B12, milk has potential health risks such as causing skin problems, allergic reactions, increase in hormones etc. I’m no doctor so I’ll let you do the research but the point I’m getting at is that these days there are SO MANY plant-based milk options with added vitamins and minerals that you have the option to test and trial them to find one that makes you feel better. Hopefully reducing animal farming and carbon dioxide emissions.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our little ‘food for thought’ post, (pun intended). What will you be cooking up this week?