Eco-friendly eating - the full what, why and how

What is eco-friendly eating?

It’s simple, this is eating in a way that reduces our impact on the planet.  The end goal is to be eating in a way that is sustainable, that is, that can be continued forever in the same form because it causes little or no damage to the environment. 

I’m not going to lie, to live in a way that has no impact is incredibly hard and just not realistic for most of us.  It’s also off putting as the effort to be eco-friendly is often seen as too high to bother starting.  It’s important to realise that you do not have to be perfect!  Every better choice has an impact, and the more of us doing it, the better chance we have of keeping our planet in working order.   

The principles I try to follow are these:

• Make the simple swaps, things like using your own bags, taking a reusable water bottle. To not do these things is quite frankly lazy.  If you won’t put yourself out by even a tiny bit to make a difference then you’re in the wrong place on this blog post!
• Try to make at least one better choice every day. If you can make more then great. 
• The eco friendly options often require some up front cash, but generally save you money in the long run as you’re not buying products. So get them one at a time, and you may even find they’re funding themselves with your savings.
• Try and bring in the harder swaps one at a time. Find what you need, look up local alternatives, and figure out the best way to introduce this into your life.  Once it’s in, move to the next change. 
• Don’t worry about strict rules, educate yourself about what’s in your food and where it comes from so you can make educated choices about what you can do in the moment. It’s ok to eat something non-sustainable sometimes, especially if it’s something really good for you…

What are the benefits of eco-friendly eating?

What’s interesting is that eating in a way that’s better for the planet, is often same thing that’s best for you.  It’s almost like Mother Nature knows what she’s on about!

There are so many ways that eating like this benefits us, some of which are:

Read more at www.eatthinkexplore.com/extinction-facts-review 

Home grown or locally sourced foods have travelled less distance and are likely to be fresher.  Vitamins degrade over time so by eating these local foods, you’re putting more nutrients into your body, especially if you can grow your own.  As a society we are deficient in many vitamins as we consume so many nutrient poor foods.  This is why we're getting sicker as a population despite being 'more advanced.'

Organic soils are less likely to be exhausted (low in minerals and organic matter) so organic foods will naturally contain more minerals and come with less toxic residues from pesticides and fertilisers.   A double win for us and biodiversity!

Packaging and processing use chemicals which can end up in our foods, some are already being linked to diseases like cancer. Keep yourself safe by avoiding them and eating natural.

Eating seasonally available foods means we get eat a wider range of foods throughout the year, increasing our variety of vitamins and minerals and reducing the chances of developing an intolerance.  We also find that the foods often contain what we need, antioxidant rich foods in summer to protect us from sun damage, foods high in vitamin C before the winter sickness season.  We’re always overriding a finely balanced system that’s evolved over centuries because we think we know better.  We really don’t!

Whilst what you eat impacts far more than just your waistline, eating eco-friendly foods will help you lose weight as you can’t really overeat vegetables.  Fill yourself right up and enjoy losing weight.

What do we need to think about when making sustainable food choices?

I’m not going to lie, there is a lot to think about and it can seem very overwhelming!  The key here is to not let this paralyse you from action.  Yes, it’s so hard to know all the answers to these questions for every piece of food you consume, but that would be perfection and that’s not what we should be aiming for.  Instead, read these to educate yourself and start asking these questions when thinking about food, but allow yourself to be imperfect at this and just make small simple changes, a step forward each day.  Start with the things you can do easily, like reducing the packaging you can see on products, choosing a sustainable supermarket, eating more plants and moving to local grass-fed organic meats.  The great thing is that you will actually be leading a healthier lifestyle when you start doing this so you get double benefits!

And remember, this is what I’m here for – here at Eat Think Explore I will research these things and share it so you don’t have to!

Here are the main considerations…  

How was it grown?

What chemicals were required to grow it?  Fertilisers, pesticides, antibiotics or hormones

Are the soils it’s being grown in being depleted of minerals and microbes?  This makes it harder to grow nutrition dense foods without large levels of chemicals and destroys biodiversity, leading to soil exhaustion. 

Are the locals that grow it treated fairly or exploited?

Are the animals treated well?

How many resources did it take to grow?

Meat takes a lot more resource to grow than plants.  That's just how food chains work, a lot more land is required to support a predator, which is why there are less of them. Simple ecology.

How much water was required for production?  Is the area it’s growing in short of water, or is this production diverting water flows from rivers and natural wetlands? 

Processed foods often require heat, chemicals and water to produce and the packaging itself requires resources and production energy. 

Where did the land come from?

Is this product contributing to deforestation or loss of habitat?

How far has it travelled / where was it grown?

Every mile contributes to its carbon footprint and emissions.

What is the processing like?

Some foods require significant processing to bring them to the state they are on our supermarket shelves.  This can require heat, power, chemicals and water, significantly increasing their carbon footprint, emissions and pollution levels. 

How is it packaged?

Is it packaged?  Any packaging, even biodegradable still has a footprint.

Is it packaged in packaging that cannot be recycled and will therefore exist pretty much forever?

How is it shipped?

Even if the packaging around the product on the shelves is recyclable and minimised, how is it shipped?  Often products are heavily packaged during shipping and this is probably not recyclable or reused. 

What about the food it was fed?

When we’re thinking about meat, we can think about where it has lived and feel that it’s sustainable because it lives on UK soils and is from a local farm.  But what has it been fed?  A lot of the soya feed used for cattle comes from areas in Brazil and is responsible for habitat loss. 

How can we be more eco-friendly in our food choices?

With so many things to take in mind above, there are many things we can do.  Some, unfortunately, require some research as they are not immediately visible when in the supermarket.  There are loads of things you can do that are super easy and obvious though, so don’t let that stop you from making some changes.  Moving to an eco-friendly lifestyle is not even a marathon or a sprint, it’s a journey.  The quicker we can take it the better, but the important thing is just to keep moving forwards and putting one foot in front of the other. 

I’ve listed these from easiest to hardest, so if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, pick a couple of easy ones to work on, and come back to this article another day.  You can’t put all this into action at once!

Take your own bags shopping

We’ve all heard it, but seriously, buy some eco-friendly fabric shopping bags or reuse the plastic bags you already have.  Put some in your car, stuff one in your handbag, put them by the door with your keys so you take them with you!  There are no excuses for not doing this one most of the time!

Also, it’s easy to think that paper bags are a better choice, and in terms of future pollution, they are, but they still cause millions of trees to be cut down each year and more resources are required to make a paper bag than a plastic one so taking your own is always best… 


For a whole load more head to the blog post (it's a much nicer read with pictures and formatting...)  Click here www.eatthinkexplore.com/eco-friendly-eating-what-why-how