Go Green With Your Diet
How many of you eat fast food on a regular basis? Why not? After all, it's cheap, easy, and quick, what's the big problem? This is the train of thought that has led to the American epidemic of obesity. Furthermore, the methods of food processing are harming the environment. And even when you think you're making the right decision by buying more fruits, and vegetables from the grocery store, commercially grown produce is still harmful because it is covered with pesticides, herbicides and toxic chemical residues.
Even meats, poultry, and dairy products are harmful because they are full of high amounts of pesticides, hormones, and antibiotic drugs that are dangerous to your health. These poisons can end up in many different places such as the water supply or breast milk. They create degenerative changes, hormonal disorders, immune system problems, and cancer in both people and animals.
Thankfully, there are some simple steps that can be taken to go green with your diet and help the environment. Even if you're not looking to lose weight, you can still use all of this advice in order to change your lifestyle and improve planet Earth.
One example of greening up your diet is to veer away from processed foods and eat more seasonal and whole foods. What does it mean to eat whole foods? No, eating a "whole banana" is not what I mean.
Whole foods are unprocessed and unrefined foods which contain no additives such as salt, sugar, or fat. Whole foods are often confused with organic foods, but the difference is that although organic foods do not contain additives or pesticides, they are produced in a manner that follows a set governmental standard.
Like whole foods, organic foods are also strongly recommended because they're non-processed. However, they tend to cost more than your average groceries, so I would suggest that you invest your "organic dollars" on sweet bell peppers, peaches, celery, apples, and strawberries. These products retain the highest levels of pesticides, so they should be consumed as naturally as possible.
Another tip is to "think green, eat brown." This refers back to the whole foods section because these brown foods include whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, and brown rice.
Also, I would strongly urge anyone and everyone to purchase locally grown products whenever possible because the average food item travels over 1500 miles, so that's a lot of waste and pollution. Another bonus is that foods found in a local farmer's market are most likely in season, which means their quality and flavor are tremendous. You can take this one step further by learning how to make your own foods from scratch and staying away from shop bought basics like bread, cheese, pasta and more. Visit www.simple-green-living.com for ways to make this a possibility.
If you can't make it to a farmer's market, one of my main bits of advice is to buy a reusable grocery tote bag made out of eco-friendly materials such as burlap or canvas. Over 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide, and most end up as litter or in landfills. By using tote bags instead, it would be a move in the positive direction towards improving the environment.
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