It is ‘national allotment week’ this week so I wanted to take some time to celebrate why we should all be growing our own, or at the least trying to by local produce.
I have a book at home from 1880 on nutrition, written by a medical doctor of the time. It is a fascinating little read. What stands out so clearly is the simplicity of the advice and absolutely no mention of the word ‘organic’. Everything was simply natural and locally sourced. Putting issues of sanitation aside, generally people ate far better than today and were not plagued by the common lifestyle diseases we see in this modern world.
To celebrate local produce I wanted to share a few reasons why growing and eating local is so good for us.
I also want to say a big thank you to all the patients who bring in their surplus harvests. It’s hard working keeping me full, but you do your best!
Here are my Top Tips for why eating local and organic is so good:
1. The secret is the soil
Organic foods get their benefit from clean, untampered soil. So, if you are eating on a budget and have to choose where to spend your money on organic food. I would suggest choosing anything that grows in the ground to be organic, by this I mean root vegetables. Get the most bang for your buck when eating organic and start with the root veg.
2. Cut the travel, cut the pollution
We know the harmful effects of pesticides on the human body and physiology but often we forget the compounding effect the pollution from travel has on our crops. I know exotic food can be fun and tasty, but the effort and pollution required to get them to your plate has a significant impact on the planet and soil.
3. Local added benefits
Having local foods can have surprising benefits and can avoid unnecessary irritation. Your body is intelligent and knows what’s friend or foe. Local foods are best digested by the body and foreign foods can be seen as exactly that, foreign. Causing the body to mount a defense against then, this would be seen in food intolerances. A great example of the benefit of local is local honey. A teaspoon of this a day has been shown to reduce hay fever.
4. Seasonal produce
We are genetically designed to eat seasonally; our body and our digestion has been programmed over thousands of years to use and adapt to the foods around us at certain times of the year. For instance, when eating ripe berries in Autumn, the body signals to store fat, this is a survival mechanism for the Winter. So, eating blueberries in an attempt to get a beach body in summer, may well backfire.
So there you have it. My top tips and reasons to eat locally.
With love,
Tom
