Eating Healthy Food, Protecting Your Environment
Eat Local, Eat Healthy, Enjoy Plenty with 100-Mile Diet Menus
Sep 18, 2009
Crunchy carrots, plump pumpkins, juicy apples – autumn is a time when nature offers us an abundant mosaic of tasty choices. It might even be time to test out your own unique version of the 100-Mile Diet or a diet of “Plenty” as it has also been called. It’s the season when nature’s colors burst into an autumn array of stunning oranges, reds and yellows. Nutritionists wisely advise to eat a variety of fresh, local, seasonal foods that represent all the colors of a rainbow. Choices become much easier with the cooperation of a plentiful fall harvest. Most nutritionists and doctors will tell you that punishing diets and fad weight-loss plans don’t work in the long term.
100-Mile Diet Celebration Feasts
Many are celebrating the season and giving thanks to Mother Nature and all her helpers who have so generously shared the year’s bountiful crops. Thanksgiving dinners and holiday feasts are being organized internationally with the inspiration from 100-Mile advocates. From Vermont to California, Pennsylvania to British Columbia Canada, groups are holding Thanksgiving Harvest 100-Mile Banquets. You might be inspired to organize one in your community too! The British Columbia Earthwise Society has focused their 3rd Annual fund-raising banquet/auction to support children’s garden programs and high school sustainable agriculture for Grade 12 students.
This year the successful celebration was held on Friday October 16 at Beach Grove Golf Course with over 100 people attending. “Funds raised from the dinner will go to children’s garden programs and sustainability initiatives such as high school sustainable agriculture for Grade 12 students,” says Pat Fleming – Earthwise Director. “Hopefully, some of our young generation will be inspired to be heroes - farmers growing food for our future families.” The organizers shared their latest menu ideas.
100-Mile Diet Message
Through their book, The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating (Canadian version Random House Canada 2009) and Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally (U.S. version Three Rivers Press, 2008),the talented journalists Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, have ignited a spark that continues to bring international attention to fresh, local, seasonal foods. It has created websites, blogs, media interviews, a reality TV show, and grassroots discussions about our food system. Their intelligent, well-researched, and entertaining examination of what we eat has captured the attention of many.
"For most of our history as a species, humans have relied first and foremost on their local areas for food,” said James MacKinnon, in an August 2009 email interview. The writers are the first to admit that converting to a locally-based diet is not easy and at times may even be impossible. After all, who wants to abandon their favourite Mexican avocados, Italian olive oil, or Venezuelan chocolate? The authors say your changed diet will mean “lots of fresh produce and homemade meals.” For some, eating local might mean one delicious dish prepared with close-to-home food. For others, it could be the whole meal. It could involve integrating more local mushrooms and hazel nuts into your meals; substituting more fragrant herbs to spice up your foods while eliminating excess salt; or seeking out more imaginative pumpkin recipes – beyond the jack-o-lantern!
100-Mile thinking for you could mean rather then blindly shopping at your neighbourhood super-store, you should look at other options such as your local farmer’s market, or getting involved in community gardening or your own backyard/balcony gardens. For those who haven’t quite perfected the art of making rose hip jelly while maintaining urban time-staved schedules, it can mean requesting that your mega-store bring in more local produce and support local agriculture.
Vegans and Vegetarians?
“Vegetarianism as we know it today tends to rely heavily on global trade and the industrial food system,” says MacKinnon. “The fact that a local diet that is strictly vegetarian is not realistic in many places is a significant challenge to the vegetarian philosophy. That said, vegetarianism remains a better environmental choice than the standard industrial-food diet, and a mainly plant-based diet is best even at the local level. Even strict vegetarianism is possible in many places, though the food system to support it typically is not yet in place. Alisa and I live in Vancouver, for example, a city with many vegetarians—yet it is a challenge to find locally grown nuts and legumes. But one great thing about local eating is that you often have the power to make change; we're working with a local farmer to try to make heritage drying beans a viable crop."
It can be more difficult for vegans and vegetarians to eat on the 100-Mile Diet, depending on where you live, the season and the local climate. The writers don’t promote an all-out perfect and politically-correct conversion to eating only within a 100 mile radius of your home, but more of a re-examination and shift to a more balanced way of selecting and enjoying your food. Their love of the food experience shines through and they have successfully been able to bring the topic of accessing fresh, local, seasonal foods into the mainstream of societal discussion.
Where To Look For Local Food
Good resources for locating close-to-home foods are Farmers’ Market websites and your local Department of Agriculture websites.
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