Advertisement With Earth Day on Tuesday, Linda Lee, nutrition manager for the La Crosse County Health Department, offers some healthy ways to do our part to make our plates a little more “green” and our footprint on the earth a little bit smaller:
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Eat local. Think about how far your food has to travel before it arrives on your plate. Remember the farther away your food comes from, the higher the cost to the environment. Quality often is compromised, especially in foods such as fruits and vegetables, which need to be picked when they are under-ripe to survive shipping.
Read labels to see where the food you typically buy comes from and try to eat food produced locally (within 150 miles of your home) or regionally rather than from another country. Check out the local food guide on the People’s Food
Co-op Web site, www.pfc.coop. This guide contains a list of local and regional foods sold at the Co-op and also at many other local grocery stores and the Holmen Meat Locker.
Reduce packaging. Does the food you buy contain lots of extraneous packaging? The more packing products contain, the more waste there is for our landfills. Try buying foods with minimal packaging to reduce waste.
Use CSAs, farmstands and farmers markets in season. Fresh produce fully ripened on the vine tastes better and is usually of better quality than produce that has to travel many miles. This summer join a Community Supported Agriculture farm and get farm-fresh produce each week. It’s a great way to ensure you eat those important fruits and veggies. Visit one of the farmers markets or a local farm stand for tasty locally grown produce.
Reduce those carnivore tendencies. Is your plate primarily meat with a few veggies, pasta or rice on the side? Think of meat in different terms, more as a condiment or smaller part of the meal versus the focus of the meal. Remember, a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards is a serving. Meat also can be environmentally costly to raise.
To eat in a more green fashion when it comes to meats, buy the local and regional meats available in the Coulee Region. Local grocery stores, the Peoples Food Co-op and the Holmen Meat Locker all carry meats from local producers. Many are fully grass-fed — an added bonus as these meats contain omega 3 fats that help with brain function and reduce inflammation.
Look for the word “pastured,” “grass finished” or “100 percent grass-fed” on the label.
For more information on the benefits of pastured food, go to www.eatwild.com.
Consider no-spray or organic. By reducing the pesticides on your food, you reduce your footprint on the earth. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Web site at www.foodnews.org to learn about 12 fruits and veggies with the most and least pesticides in/on them.
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8227.
