Sustainable Eating
If you are completely new or are still in the early stages of becoming the best you and living a healthier lifestyle, you might feel intimidated or not sure what to do first.
There is no right or wrong “level” of commitment to living a sustainable lifestyle — or a sustainable diet. While there is no set definition or set of rules defining sustainable nutrition, there are a few core dietary and lifestyle shifts that can help you become a more sustainable eater. Below are five sustainable dietary shifts I keep in mind when making my own food decisions and are a great starting point for anyone wanting to embark on a sustainable lifestyle change.
Eat the rainbow! Eating an array of colorful fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds provides a variety of nutrients for health and wellness.
consuming a predominantly plant-based diet to lower your individual carbon footprint. Producing most plant-based foods requires less energy input in the form of fossil fuels and water than producing animal foods, while also releasing less greenhouse gases and other production byproducts.
If you do decide to adopt a mostly plant-based diet, keep in mind that it can take time to change habits and that every little bit adds up.
Get to know your local food system by attending and buying from farmer's markets, signing up for a CSA box from a local farm, and eating foods that are fresh and in season. If you are an omnivore, get to know your local butcher and the animal farms in your area to reduce the miles your food must travel to reach your grocery store, and ultimately your plate.
Buying local food not only reduces the miles your food travels (and the environmental outputs of that travel), but it also allows you to support and nurture your local food economy.
Changing to a sustainable lifestyle is not an overnight job. It takes time to slowly implement changes and find a way to make them fit with your needs, time and resources.
Growing it yourself is the ultimate way to cancel out food miles and actually have a positive impact on the environment by adding some leafy plants to the atmosphere. Fruit trees and well-established vege gardens can take years of input but things like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers are easy and reasonably quick to grow. Herbs are also a good place to start and most will happily grow inside on a windowsill.
A great way to get around seasonal eating but still make sustainable food choices is to preserve food when it’s in season so you have access to it year-round. Grow a good crop of tomatoes and make bulk tomato sauce to have fresh tomato sauce through the winter. Or preserve fruits such as plums or peaches for a tasty dessert topping even out of season.
This summer we picked our own raspberries in bulk and froze some of them to have smoothies and breakfast toppings even when raspberries go out of season.
Eating sustainably continues even after you’ve actually eaten the food. Composting your food waste is a really effective way of reducing waste in landfill, making sure waste breaks down properly and having really great foundations for your garden.
Most food scraps can be composted and you can even add things like paper and cardboard, bamboo cotton buds, sawdust and coffee grinds. Composting is actually a fine science and you need to make sure you have a balance of the right stuff for your region so do some research before creating compost to use in your garden. A worm farm is also an excellent way to process waste and create more nutrients for your garden.
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