EAT LOCAL: ORGANIC Food, Local Markets, Food Transport, Processing
LOCAL often means organic, less pesticides, and often less heavy metals/toxins
~Organic has been shown to have 30-40% less pesticides (#18)
LOCAL = Less transport, storage, More nutrients retained in your food!
~Transport, temperature, and time all greatly effect nutrient content!
~The longer the storage= the higher the histamine content (#21)
Examples of processing/transport effects on nutrients:
-University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15-55% of vitamin C within a week.
-Some spinach can lose 90% of Vitamin C within the first 24 hours after harvest and 53% of its folate within 8 days!
This is considering that………
Most veggies spend 5 days in transit before arriving to a grocery store and another 3 days on a grocery store shelf before they are purchased by the consumer. After we buy them, we often store them for up to 7 days prior to consumption. This means by the time we’re eating them they’ve been picked for nearly 2 weeks and have lost at least 50% of their nutrients!
IDEALLY: To get the MOST nutrients out of our food
We should aim to eat our fruits and vegetables within 12-24 hours of harvest, this of course can be a challenge!
How to do this in our world today:
~Some Local markets will often stock their vegetables same day
Ex: The Kiva in Eugene, OR
~Shop at your local farmers markets
~Grow your own garden!
Soil content matters!
~Much of the soil in heavy agricultural areas, such as the Midwest, have much higher levels of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, overall heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics, and round up, etc than other areas such as California.
Sources:
18) Organics and pesticides
21) Histamine in foods
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