better food

#food #organic #betterliving #change

Let’s start with something very emotional and difficult, at last for me.

most people might think food is the easiest part, not for me. I love food, i love to indulge, spoil myself with good, exquisite food. I could easily give up on every cosmetic thing or fashion. but food! NOOOOOOO (and that is me using capitals) food, that is expensive salt from wherever, finest beef from argentinia, fish from the atlantic, rice from himalaya, tea from japan, champagne from france, chocolate from chile, costa rica and sometimes uruguay, my coffee comes from ethiopia, cheese from france and italy, wine from italy, france and portugal (thanks to jean-piere i had to add portugal to my wine list, bananas … ooooh, endless list.

so i can’t make all of it, but and that is the important point – i get better, and i do as much as possible and i become more and more aware of some of the problems resulting from bad food politics.

and another good thing is, more and more people become aware that the way food is produced is just not working, it is too much cheating on us. we lost trust in the big companies and that is good. when ever you can, support the small shops and brands, the real people like you. not big brands who don’t care about you and if you eat waste, chemicals who make you ill or make cancer and often they don’t even pay tax in the country you live. so in the end you pay double.

 

I. food

1. buy organic food

2. buy local food

3. buy seasonal food

4. no artificial sweeteners

5. no sugar

6. no food from food chains

7. avoid gen manipulated food

8. eat with friends

9. don’t buy packaged goods

10. don’t buy ready to eat food

11. don’t buy canned food

12. drink rather tap water (in germany, see below)

13. don’t buy food in advance

14. make your own jam

15. grow your own herbs

16. read the text on the package

19. have as much vegetarian days as possible

20. if you can’t prononce it, don’t buy it

21. don’t through food away

 

ok, looks like a list of lot’s of don’t do this and don’t do that … but honestly, choose one point, just one. and give it a try. you will see it is so easy that you can’t wait to choose another point

here we go:
buy organic food – not that difficult. you don’t have to buy everything in the organic shop, but try to buy as much as possible in an organic shop. not only because very often it tastes better, no also because the circumstances of the production are way better and you do not add so much chemicals to your life. there are enough chemicals you might not be able to avoid.

buy local food – if you buy your food in an organic shop the chance is good that it is anyways local. but you find local food as well in your supermarket. if there are strawberries from germany and some from spain take the german ones (if you live in germany). further you can help to make sure that the whole harvest is in the store. do you know that only the pretty vegetables come in the store? even in organic shops? the rest goes straight to the bin, what a waste. why not get a weekly bio box from your local farmer.

buy seasonal food – ah hard, we all know strawberries do not grow in winter and as a city kid i didn’t even know that apples don’t grow the whole year. but ask your mum, your grandma, do research in the internet. buy the food that actually grow in the particular season of the year.

no artificial sweeteners, no sweeteners! no aspartame, no stavia, no how ever they are called. ban them, absolutely. do you know that in the uk in normal lemonades like fanta etc. is not only sugar, no there is added sweeteners as well. sugar seems to be not sweet enough.

no sugar! ok, life will be bitter? I don’t know, because that is the point i have the biggest problems with. but sugar is really unhealthy and sugar is not growing around the corner.

no food from food chains. if you need a burger etc, make your own or at least go and have a really good one (berlin there are plenty of really good burger places, like windburger, fräulein burger, white trash etc. etc.). do not go to burger king, mcdonalds, kentucky fried chicken, subway, how ever the chains are called. not only because it is unhealthy, not only because the food there is just empty waste, but also because the workers there are working under bad circumstance and very low income, because the beefs from food chains are having a big impact in climate change, becuase they avoid paying tax in the countries they earn money and above all – if you really want to have an impact, start here! these are the food companies having massive econimcal influence.

avoid gen manipulated food. if i would ask you, do you want to eat genmanipulated food, you would say no, i am sure. but than you do. without knowing. most of our daily supermarkt food has gen manipulated ingredients. more than you would imagine.

eat with friends. you didn’t expect that here, did you? why? first, it is difficult to get the foof for only one person, so you might through away lot’s of food. secondly you save energy. if you eat with three other people, three other ovens are not using energy this evening and cooking a meal for one needs as much energy as cooking for four or more. and further it adds value to your quality of life. is there something better, than having a meal with friends?

don’t buy packaged goods. same as above, you might through away food you don’t need. and also the pakcaging is really bad in the sense of sustainability (plastic, styrofoam, aluminium foil, etc.)

don’t buy ready to eat food. read the ingredients, and you know why. if i make a curry, there are 3 ingredients (vegetables, oil, spices), if you buy and ready to eat there is a list of ingredients as long as my facebook friends. things you can’t pronounce, most of it is only included to add taste and make it longer last. some of them have a very bad impact on your health, and some might even cause cancer

don’t buy canned food. well, i am guilty doing that again and again (tomatoes). but i am working on it! i can do it! :-). did you know that inside of the metall is an epoxy liner commonly used to prevent canned products from reacting to the metal, so in fact it is a plastic.

The liner is manufactured with a chemical called
bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to a variety of health problems, including hormone disruption, prostate cancer, diabetes, and obesity, as well as aggressive behavior in children. A new analysis by Consumer Reports confirms that BPA that lines cans ends up in the food that we eat. rodale

in germany drink rather tap water than so called “table water”, the health rules for tap water are more strict than for bottled water! and read more about bottled water here

don’t buy food in advance. if possible. you might through it away, it will loose the last bits of vitamins it ever had while waiting in your fridge, you think you need abig fridge, because you buy so much food in advane (energy), more food in a fridge needs more energy to be cooled, an empty fridge generates a craver to be filled (the shopping cart syndrom – if people take a shopping cart in a supermarket people buy generally more than they wanted, to fill the emptyness of the cart). or buy at kochhaus for example, only as much as you need for exact the amount of persons you plan to cook for

make your own jam, it’s absolutely easy (see here) and you can decide how much sugar is in and make only as much as you need

grow your own herbs. i am not talking about these pots from the supermarket, i mean proper herbs. which re-grow after cutting. you don’t have to become a urban gardener if you do not like that, but why not support them? just ask for some herbs or vegetables and give something in return … like money, transportation, whatever

read the text on the package. every single line! if there is anything in you can’t pronounciate, don’t buy it. it doesn’t belong into your food.

have as much vegetarian days as possible. ok, to be honest what my friend meike said was “become vegetarian”, but i tried it, and i am not made to be a vegetarian. but i don’t eat that much meet. our grand parents had meet once a week, there is a tradition of a sunday roast… something like that, could work for me. but what she said sounds sensible. don’t buy bits and parts from a chicken, like only breast or only wings etc what do you think happens to the rest? and don’t lets talk about the conditions the animals have to live. the government is supporting these conditions by making ridiculous rules and laws about how a chicken (for example) hast to live and die and be stored and packed and sold.

if you can’t prononce it, don’t buy it. again, nothing to add really, but very difficult and scary in daily living if you start with that you might get really frustrated about what companies do to you.

don’t through food away. there are people hungry in the streets, you shouldn’t buy more than you need and than through it away. and if it is just out of date doesn’t mean one can’t eat it anymore. if you bought to much give it away, every city has organizations which have a use for that food.

don’t buy any “Monsanto” food. there are plenty of lists online available which food brands to avoid and there is a great app for your phone available its called buycott. http://www.buycott.com

do you have any other ideas, links, or recommendations please leave a comment, i am happy to hear from you.

there is a pinterest board where i put in, interesting things about food or better food, like recipes for deserts without sugar, or smoothie recipes.