Imagine if the food you fed yourself and your family was tasty, easy and a whole lot better for the planet. It's not as tall an order as it seems. In fact, a hot new book makes it pretty easy.
Registered dietitian Kate Geagan, author of Go Green Get Lean (Rodale), says our food choices are not only clogging our arteries and making us fat, but it turns out the American Diet is the SUV of eating styles.
"Switching to greener food choices can reduce global warming as effectively as buying a new fuel-efficient vehicle," Kate says. "And unlike a home remodel or a car purchase, food is every day."
Blending scientific fact with fresh food ideas, Go Green Get Lean serves up the latest dish on moving to a fresh green cuisine as it opens readers’ eyes to the impact of their food choices on personal and planetary health.
It’s nutrition with a mission: See how easy and delicious it can be to start saving the planet one bite at a time.
"One thing is clear: your food choices are no longer just about you," Kate says. "The impact of the foods you choose are no longer limited to the immediate impact to your hips or the long term impact to your health.
"Your stake in the food choices you make run deeper than you likely have thought; they run to food companies and agribusiness, to Congress, to Wall Street, to the energy sector, and most importantly, to the well-being of the planet.
"And it is the power of your pocketbook, the power you wield every single time you purchase food that tips those stakes in one clear direction or another."
What you learn in Go Green Get Lean will enable you to make powerful changes that are easy, fresh, delicious and life-saving to the planet, without requiring that you become a vegan, dig a root cellar or retreat to a diet that’s within walking distance from your home.
"The Go Green, Get Lean diet is really pretty simple when you get right down to it; what works for effective weight loss and improved health is very, very closely tied with what works for a better planet," Kate says.
"Choco-flavored snacks that are fat-free, carb-free, calorie-free and shrink-wrapped tight enough to survive another Hurricane Katrina may help dieters feel they can 'have their cake and eat it too,' but boy is that cake costly to the planet."
The Lean and Green Diet is a six-week program that tackles one high carbon area of your diet at time. At the end of six weeks you will have all of the building blocks in place you need to tread more lightly, literally, for the rest of your life.
Each week will give you a step-by-step roadmap to swapping leaner, greener choices.
Click for more info about Kate Geagan and Go Green Get Lean.
Meanwhile, here are 4 quick shortcuts to take a big bite out of our diet’s carbon footprint without even touching your diet.
1. Become a Sustainable Shopper
Your individual behavior as a shopper is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue in determining the total carbon footprint of your food. In our suburban culture, we are logging more miles than ever before on food. How often do you shop? How many stores do you visit to save money? What type of bags do you use? Your habits as a shopper matter.
2. Cut your Waste-Line
A recent study concluded that on average the British waste about 30% of the edible food they buy. In our economic downturn, I imagine few Americans can afford to toss 1 out of 3 grocery bags, but my hunch is we’re not too far off... probably without realizing it.
Whether it's tossing out leftovers, buy a cookie at the mall and then guiltily throw it away after three bites, eat only the white meat off the rotisserie chicken and then pitch the carcass, the energy involved in bringing you that food (and the greenhouse gases it produces in the landfill) has been wasted, and as food decays in landfills it emits one of the most potent warming gases of all -- methane.
3. Reduce, Reuse, Reuse, Reuse Some more... then Recycle
While it’s easy to get bogged down in “should I buy aluminum or plastic? Frozen or fresh?” one thing is clear; it is what happens to the food packaging after you’re done that is critical in determining the actual carbon footprint of that choice. While the idea of “Reusing” often gets glossed over, it’s critical to cutting the carbon footprint of your diet.
4. Be sure your Appliances are Energy Efficient
Ho hum, sounds boring, right? Wrong. A striking conclusion made by the UC Davis Sustainability Institute after an extensive review of the literature was this: One of the biggest hotspots in determining a person’s personal "food footprint" is that household food storage and preparation account for 25-30% of the total carbon load of that food. So tucking those organic farmers market strawberries in a 20-year-old fridge that’s belching out warming gases misses the point.
"One thing is clear: your food choices are no longer just about you," Kate says. "The impact of the foods you choose are no longer limited to the immediate impact to your hips or the long term impact to your health.
"Your stake in the food choices you make run deeper than you likely have thought; they run to food companies and agribusiness, to Congress, to Wall Street, to the energy sector, and most importantly, to the well-being of the planet.
"And it is the power of your pocketbook, the power you wield every single time you purchase food that tips those stakes in one clear direction or another."
What you learn in Go Green Get Lean will enable you to make powerful changes that are easy, fresh, delicious and life-saving to the planet, without requiring that you become a vegan, dig a root cellar or retreat to a diet that’s within walking distance from your home.
"The Go Green, Get Lean diet is really pretty simple when you get right down to it; what works for effective weight loss and improved health is very, very closely tied with what works for a better planet," Kate says.
"Choco-flavored snacks that are fat-free, carb-free, calorie-free and shrink-wrapped tight enough to survive another Hurricane Katrina may help dieters feel they can 'have their cake and eat it too,' but boy is that cake costly to the planet."
The Lean and Green Diet is a six-week program that tackles one high carbon area of your diet at time. At the end of six weeks you will have all of the building blocks in place you need to tread more lightly, literally, for the rest of your life.
Each week will give you a step-by-step roadmap to swapping leaner, greener choices.
Click for more info about Kate Geagan and Go Green Get Lean.
Meanwhile, here are 4 quick shortcuts to take a big bite out of our diet’s carbon footprint without even touching your diet.
1. Become a Sustainable Shopper
Your individual behavior as a shopper is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue in determining the total carbon footprint of your food. In our suburban culture, we are logging more miles than ever before on food. How often do you shop? How many stores do you visit to save money? What type of bags do you use? Your habits as a shopper matter.
2. Cut your Waste-Line
A recent study concluded that on average the British waste about 30% of the edible food they buy. In our economic downturn, I imagine few Americans can afford to toss 1 out of 3 grocery bags, but my hunch is we’re not too far off... probably without realizing it.
Whether it's tossing out leftovers, buy a cookie at the mall and then guiltily throw it away after three bites, eat only the white meat off the rotisserie chicken and then pitch the carcass, the energy involved in bringing you that food (and the greenhouse gases it produces in the landfill) has been wasted, and as food decays in landfills it emits one of the most potent warming gases of all -- methane.
3. Reduce, Reuse, Reuse, Reuse Some more... then Recycle
While it’s easy to get bogged down in “should I buy aluminum or plastic? Frozen or fresh?” one thing is clear; it is what happens to the food packaging after you’re done that is critical in determining the actual carbon footprint of that choice. While the idea of “Reusing” often gets glossed over, it’s critical to cutting the carbon footprint of your diet.
4. Be sure your Appliances are Energy Efficient
Ho hum, sounds boring, right? Wrong. A striking conclusion made by the UC Davis Sustainability Institute after an extensive review of the literature was this: One of the biggest hotspots in determining a person’s personal "food footprint" is that household food storage and preparation account for 25-30% of the total carbon load of that food. So tucking those organic farmers market strawberries in a 20-year-old fridge that’s belching out warming gases misses the point.
No comments:
Post a Comment