An important part of being healthy is being mindful of how your food behavior affects the environment. Your everyday food choices can have an impact on global warming from the amount of personal waste you create. Farm-to-table restaurants are becoming a new trend for a reason. Eating fresh food is not only better for our bodies—but for the environment, planet, and future generations.
I would like to hear from you. Please let me know what you do to help the environment!
Here are some ways to help the environment:
- Buy Food in Bulk:Nuts, Beans, Quinoa, etc. instead of individual plastic containers. Cut down on the amount of plastic you use. Bring your own container to the bulk bill.
- Keep a reusable BPA Free Water Bottle at your desk instead of taking a new cup and throwing it away a couple times a day.
- Recycle. Once you start recycling you will notice that your recycling bin will fill up faster than your garbage. That is why we want to minimize the amount of individual little bags and containers.
- If you have a backyard, consider starting a compost. This is very popular for most households in Europe. Give back to the Earth and replenish your soil. Take all the leftover food scraps each day and put in a compost pile instead of mixing it with the garbage. Fresh Compost makes the richest soil for a garden.
- Switch from Paper Towels to Cotton & Linen Hand towels
- Bring reusable canvas bags with you to the supermarket to take your groceries home in. No Need for 10 extra plastic bags to go to the recycle bin just so you can bring food from the market to the car and to the house.
- Eat leftovers. Do not throw food away. Food is precious. Make sure you finish what is in your fridge before eating out. Eating all the food you buy is important. Buy wisely and eat the food before it goes bad. Do not waste food when much of the world does not have food to eat. A recent study estimated that the average household wastes 14% of its food purchases.
- Bring your lunch to work in a reusable glass container. Every time you buy take out lunch, it comes in a plastic container. You use it for 30 minutes and then that item goes to the landfill.
- Eat organic. Decrease the amount of pesticides, chemicals, hormones and antibiotics going into the environment.
- Eat local. Buy fruits and veggies from the Farmers Market. When we eat local grown foods, we cut down on the amount of fuel used to transport the foods.
- Bike to work. Bike to town. Bike to your friend’s house. Carpool.
- Donate food if your family is not going to consume it before its expiration date.
- Do you know what your personal carbon footprint is? Check out the Nature’s Conservatory’s Carbon Footprint Calculator: http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/
- Start a Garden or Join a CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture) Group and have pick up organic produce each week from the farm.
- Give gratitude for your food and where it came from. Give gratitude to the sun, clouds, rain, grass for growing the food and give gratitude to all the people that work on the farm and the transport the food to get to your plate.
- Spend time in nature. The more we spend time in Nature the more we appreciate it and want to treat it well.
- Use non-toxic cleaners when cleaning your home.
- Buy bulk size body care products. One bottle of shampoo can last 3 months instead of 1 month.
- Select using natural fibers. When you buy clothing and household linens that are natural they can be recycled back into the earth. Look for cotton, wool, hemp, and bamboo.
- Ultimately, try creating a zero waste home!