http://www.care2.com/greenliving/eight-steps-to-the-new-green-diet.html
8 Steps to the New Green Diet
Nowhere does the win/win of green living for health and the environment show up more than when one chooses to eat the foods of the new green diet. This diet is the old and timeless one of eating real food grown locally in well-tended soil, with some adaptations for modern life. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Eating Organically Produced Food
Organic agriculture strives toward being sustainable, meaning that which can be continued indefinitely, without depletion of resources beyond a rate that they could be renewed.
Step 2 and 3: Eating Local, Seasonal Food
Eating local, seasonal food supports local farms and saves the energy that would be used to refrigerate and transport food many miles.
Step 4: Eating a Variety of Food
“The loss of genetic diversity—silent, rapid, inexorable—is leading us to a rendezvous with extinction, to the doorstep of hunger on a scale we refuse to imagine,” writes Kenny Ausubel in the book Seeds of Change: The Living Treasure. Organic farms grow a wide variety of plants to keep the soil healthy and preserve diversity. Industrial farms, on the other hand, monocrop, meaning they grow nothing but a few commodities.
Step 5: Eating Low on the Food Chain
Humans can eat both high and low on the food chain and be adequately nourished. Residues of persistent chemicals such as DDT, PCBs, dioxin, and many pesticides concentrate in animal fat.
Step 6: Eating Whole Foods with Adequate Fiber
Whole foods are nutritionally complex and complete. Refined foods have had much of their nutritional value and fiber removed.
Step 7: Avoiding Processed Food
The average American eats 150 pounds of additives a year, much of which is sugar and salt. Three thousand additives are intentionally used in processed food. Many of these additives, such as hydrogenated oils, can cause health problems.
Step 8: Reducing Packaging for Public Health and the Environment
Chlorine and dioxin are just two chemical compounds that are released in the manufacture of many packaging materials. Toxic chemicals can also migrate to your food from packaging.
Adapted from The Green Kitchen Handbook, by Annie Berthold-Bond and Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet.
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58 comments
add your comment »In these three instances, compare humans to our fellow land mammals (excluding rodents- I am not a rodent- I can't gnaw through things).
1.The normal or usual number of offspring per birth
2.If you are lost in the desert, and then come across a pool of water,do you either (with or without using your hand) suck the water to drink, or do you lap it?
3.How does your body cool itself when you are hot? Do you pant or sweat?
Humans are herbivores.
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I am a Locavore and "urban farmer," in Miami, who is going back to the basics.
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Common sense article. I have recently made the switch to fully vegan for mostly moral reasons. However, the health benefits that came with it really convinced me that humans are herbivores (or should be) and not carnivorous. Scientifically, our digestive systems are herbivorous not carnivorous anyway. Is it any surprise then that REAL food really heals?
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Great article. Eating like this does benefit your body, definitely. I switched to a vegetarian diet and I'm migrating towards vegan, and I have noticed a lot of positive changes. My skin is smoother and more pure, I have more energy, and my eyes are brighter. If you can help save the earth while keeping your own health in top shape, why not?
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For health reasons I switched to a mostly vegetarian diet a year ago. My arthritis of 20 years is almost non existent and my hay fever of 25 years has gone away! I do eat fish and seafood occasionally and some cheese now and then. If you need a reason to make the change to grass fed meat and organic chicken, please Google "Earthlings" and watch the 90 minute movie online or read the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma". It will change how you view food!
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Thanks! Great article! Ive been going through a fantastic green juice detox. Ive been juicing spinach, kale, and wheat grass several times a week with my simple portable juicer. I've never felt better!
Here's to healthy living!
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Thanks! Great article! Ive been going through a fantastic green juice detox. Ive been juicing spinach, kale, and wheat grass several times a week with my simple portable juicer. I've never felt better!
Here's to healthy living!
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The one problem I have with organic food is that it is so expensive! Also, in low-income areas, it is very limited, if available at all. There are some places where liquor stores are far more common than grocery stores. I want to help the environment, but my wallet is strained as it is.
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Following these steps will give your body a more alkaline ph warding off Disease and help Promote weight loss. I have always believed in a great quantity of vegetables in my diet, and love a great variety.
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New to the marketplace Essante Greens and alkalizing nutrition. All of your needed greens and vegetable vitimins and minerals from one easy to take source www.essanteworldwide.com/funpopbiz
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