5 Easy Ways To Support The Planet And Your Health In the Grocery Store
Sometimes it can be really discouraging trying to figure out what we can do to support our health, or to even know what “healthy” is these days.
It can also be disheartening trying to figure out how “we the people” can support the health of this beautiful planet.
I’ve removed any dietary opinions and created a list of simple yet powerful things we can do to support our health, and the health of the planet.
Happy shopping!
ORGANIC/NON-GMO
This is for the health of your gut, the farmers, the soil, and ultimately the planet.
Pesticides kill everything unless it has been genetically modified to survive. If it kills everything that hasn't been through a lab, it’s worth contemplating if WE are built to withstand it.
If you’re thinking “but Gwen, I’m not a bloody plant!” I hear you, but pesticides kill all the living organisms in the soil, living organisms that are A LOT like the TRILLIONS of living organisms live in your gut.
These gut bugs break down our food, they extract essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to access, they support our immune health, our brain health, and our hormonal health. They impact our mood, energy, and mental clarity. They are ESSENTIAL to our health, so it’s good to think about what consuming pesticides every single day of our life is doing to our gut, and the soil that our food is grown in.
Dictionary definition Pesticide: a chemical preparation for destroying plant, fungal, or animal pests.
The top 3 genetically modified crops in the USA are corn, soy, and cotton. This is particularly important to EVERYONE who eats. If you’re plant based, check the ingredients of your vegan protein sources and prepared food — if you’re an omnivore recognize that masses of this corn is grown to support feedlot raised cows. (See below).
So, do your best.
Look into the dirty dozen and clean 15 and slowly start to shift as best you can.
https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
GRASS FED/PASTURE RAISED MEAT (BONUS POINTS FOR LOCAL!)
Grass fed is for bison, beef, goat, lamb, sheep, and dairy products. Pasture raised is for pork, poultry, and eggs.
These labels mean that the animals have been raised eating their natural diet and foraging outdoors.
This really is the only animal protein you want to eat; for the health of the animal, planet, and you. When an animal is meant to eat grass, but is fed non stop corn and antibiotics (antibiotics are used to make animals fatten up faster… something to think about) they are in a bad way.
Think how you would feel if all you ate was something your body isn’t meant to digest alongside something designed to kill all the things in your body that digest food… It's not good!
It’s also important to note that GRASS FED is above ORGANIC when it comes to bovine and such, because organic corn is still indigestible for animals that are only built to digest grasses.
If you can source a local farmer and get to know their farming practices this gets even better, because I’m not entirely sure how regulated grass fed/pasture raised is at this point.
WILD & SUSTAINABLY CAUGHT SEAFOOD
Wild fish have a higher nutrient value than farmed, including the ever amazing omega-3 fatty acids that we hear so much about!
Fish farms are also wreaking havoc on the ocean and infecting the wild salmon with diseases. Also I once worked at a fish packing plant that processed farmed salmon, and trust me, you don’t want to eat farmed fish.
Dr Mark Hyman says that if your only option is farmed fish to look for fish raised without antibiotics and hormones… two things we really don’t want in our ocean!
In addition, look for sustainably harvested seafood.
We desperately need to protect the precious resources on this planet.
(If you’re keen you could write to your local government official and let them know it’s time to switch from farming fish back to supporting hatcheries!)
FAIR TRADE & RAINFOREST ALLIANCE CERTIFIED
Coffee, tea, sugar, and chocolate are some of our favourite things--but are often produced by underpaid farms and workers who can hardly get by. This is not ok.
We don’t want to be people who sit at the top of a tower enjoying our caramel macchiato to the detriment of other people and the environment.
The Fair Trade label protects these incredible, hard working people who grow these beautiful things we love and enjoy.
The Rainforest Alliance stamp supports sustainable farming and livelihoods, as well as conservation of the places and spaces that make air for us to breathe—among other cool things.
LOCAL
Nothing is better than local organic produce that is in season. You support community resilience, local families, your gut health, and the health and sustainability of our planet.
Because yes, it’s amazing to have delicious avocados and oranges that came from somewhere far far away, but we can easily lighten our footprint by getting everything else we possibly can from as close as we can.
Also, everything tastes better.
IN SUMMARY
It can be easy to think making these small choices aren’t going to make a difference, that one person or family supporting these labels is useless or pointless.
But just imagine if you made the shift, and in doing so inspired one other person who inspired another, and all of you raised children who also lived this way. And then, slowly but steadily millions and billions of people started doing it too… just imagine how that would shape our future here on earth.
We eat 3 times a day every day of our lives, how we spend our money and what we put in our body makes a huge impact.
Huge.
What do you feel ready to commit to?
Kindness for days,
Gwen
*There are of course many, many other things to do that support eating well, but this is the starting point.
