5 Tips: Healthy Food Choices for Body and Environment
【5 Tips: Healthy Food Choices for Body and Environment】
Probably some of you don't know what to do and where to start, even though you do want to contribute to our planet and be healthy at the same time. To be honest, I've been through before! And now here I am to help you guys!
I want to share with you, what I always do and learned so much about nutrition and the environment at nutrition school in Canada, to help the environment and our health when grocery shopping. So you could get an idea how and what to do when you're buying foods :)
1. Always look closely at ingredients on the package
This is a must to do when buying any packaged products. Although so many consumer are only reading Nutritional Facts, it's a big NO! Nutritional Facts are't that important because it doesn't necessarily mean that all information on nutrients can apply to everyone. The numbers are calculated for general population. But you already know that you have a different body from others. Everyone is unique. We don't really know how many percents of each nutrient we're getting.
On the other hand, a list of ingredients is very important. It tells you what's inside the package: organic, GMOs, modified foods, colorings, chemicals, artificial ingredients and so on.
Choose the natural one made of simple ingredients, which doesn't have anything that you can't even recognize or read properly. Those are usually unhealthy and/or unnecessary.
Looking at ingredients will guide you to choose the right one for your health!
2. Avoid artificial additives
When you read the package carefully, you'll notice that many prepackaged foods contain unnecessary ingredients and some are potentially harmful to our body.
Examples are colorings, flavors, preservatives, and sweetners (Splenda, Sweet n Low, etc). Artificial sweetners may have an effect on your cravings for sugar which is more than you would do when consuming regular sugar. Some studies showed that the addiction to sugar is more than that of coccain.
3. Avoid food containing MSG
MSG stands for Monosodium Glutamate. MSG is widely used in Asian cuisines to enhance flavors and richness. But it is food additive and toxic to our body. You may experience headache, diarrhea, nausea, weakness and tingling if you're sensitive. When a high dose of MSG, it may affect the neurological function.
4. Avoid GMO foods
GMO foods, genetically modified organisms are non-natural products created by changing genes of plant, animal, bacterica and virus with a use of genetic engineering in a laboratory that don't occur in a traditional method.
In Canada, 4 specific products are GMOs: Corn, Soybeans, Canola and Sugar beets (cane sugar and white sugar)
GMO foods might potentially have some both environmental and human health risks. Possible environmental effects are genetic pollution, creation of superbugs and promotion of destructive farming practices due to soil deprivation and deforestation. On the other hand, if we consume a large amount of GMO foods in a long term, this might affect your health, causing allergies, digestive malfunction, inflammation and damages to the kidneys, liver, pancreas and nervous system.
Find non-GMO logo on products or certified organic to avoid consuming GMO foods.
If no labels, that means most of products mentioned above are GMOs.
5. Buy local, organic and seasonal products
For your health and the environment, eat organic, local, and seasonal foods when available. Eating local products will contribute to the reduction of food mile. When decreasing food mile, the emmision of carbon dioxide which is harmful to our planet could be brought down. Seasonal vegetables and fruits are considered to have the highest nutrients, compared to when you eat them out of season. Also it helps reducing carbon footprint. Visit your local farmers market!
For Vancouverians, visit Vancouver Farmers Market
Most importantly, choosing certified organic is the best way for keeping us healthy and the earth clean since they're grown with less pesticides (used natural ones, not synthetic ones) and prohibited certain artificial additives drived from harmful chemicals.
Find certified organic logo .
But I know that organic foods are not for everyone becasue of their relaitvely expensive price. But here is my tip: Use wisely "Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen" released by EWG.
These are the lists of 27 vegetables and fruits, considering which ones have more or less pesticides, based on pesiticide residues and the characteristics of crops.
For example, if an apple on Dirty and a pineapple on Clean are used the same amount of pesticides when they were grown, then why do you think the pinapple can be on Clean instead of Dirty like an apple?
The answer is that the skin of pineapple is quite thicker and firmer than the apple, so pesticides aren't absorbed enough through the pineapple skin as much as the apple is.
So, if you're choosing organic between them, I would say go for the pineapple!
Whenever I do grocery shoppings, this is how I choose organic foods with no financial concerns or whatnot.
Here is links for each list. I highly recommend you visiting if you're willing to consider :)
Hope this will help you when you do grocey shopping next time!
If you have any questions, please let me know via comment below or contact! I'm happy to help you out!
Thank you,
-piggyinkitchen-
References:
1. The Non-GMO Project https://www.nongmoproject.org/
2. Enviornmental Working Groups https://www.ewg.org/
3. Harvard Health Publishing, Artificial sweetners; sugar-free, but at what cost?
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-sugar-free-but-at-what-cost-201207165030
