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Greening Our World

Change your Diet – Change the World

Matthew Ballenden, owner of Fresh Earth Food Store, nutritional chef and fervent environmentalist is convinced that dietary changes can have a massive impact on addressing the many predicaments the world faces today, including water and land shortages, food shortages, climate change and world poverty.

 “As the consumer you are still king, by virtue of having the choice about which products to support and which to ignore. This choice means ordinary shoppers have the ability to change the world, one grocery list at a time,” says Ballenden. “The way we view our diet, and the choices we make about what we eat, is rapidly becoming one of the most astounding tools we have in our personal arsenal to save the planet, at a time when saving the planet couldn’t be more necessary,” he adds.

According to Ballenden, it’s now about far more than simply displaying compassion for animals in your food choices, or about being fashionable, or different. “It’s about good nutrition, certainly. Eating fresh, healthy food from local suppliers while reducing your dependence on meat and increasing your helping of fruit and vegetables will definitely do you good. The exciting truth that many are awakening to is the realisation that healthy eating is a powerful way to reduce one’s carbon footprint and tackle the environmental crisis,” Ballenden says. 

Ballendan offers five tips on how you can change your world this New Year, one forkful at a time:

 1. Eat less meat:

The striking reality is that simply by reducing your dependence on meat as a staple food, and by only eating free range meat products, you’ll be contributing to saving billions of litres of water, reducing pollution and maintaining plant and animal diversity on earth.

Consider these facts that look solely on the impact of a reduced meat diet on saving water:

Firstly, over one billion people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water.

Skipping just one ladies steak (250g) at a restaurant would equate to giving your recommended 2 litres of water a day to a thirsty person for a period of 17 years! This is because it takes approximately 100 000 litres of water to make one kilogram of beef!  In comparison, it takes only 500 litres of water to make one kilo of potatoes, and 1000 litres for a kilo of rice, so opting for the baked potato with creamed spinach and mushrooms, or the roasted vegetable risotto would be doing the planet and your fellow man a massive favour.

Many people believe they cannot change their diet, that it will be too difficult. If that’s you, start with one day a week. Try holding a “meatless Monday” and only consume plant products, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Also, drink water or non-dairy beverages, such as almond, rice or soy milk. Your taste buds will thank you for the variety and the nutrition.

2. Shop consciously:

Every time you go to a grocery store, restaurant, or eat a meal at home, choose consciously and your action can bring immediate, positive consequences to healing yourself and our planet. Choose products from responsible producers that use environmentally safe methods to grow and package their product and in doing so have your health at the forefront of their priorities.

3. Make a meal plan:

Part of the change that needs to take place is to slow down the pace of our lives – which means consuming less convenience food.  The best way to do this is to have meal plans which are a great way of creating variety in the choice of food and recipes that you use at home. These healthy eating plans do all of the work for you by supplying you with shopping lists, recipes and most importantly a balanced diet for the week. See Fresh Earth Food Store’s Meal Plans with recipes, ingredients and shopping lists, and all the not-so-easy to source, seriously good-for-you stuff is always available at our store.

4. Raise healthy and aware kids:

 Tasty lunch boxes that are free of fatty, nutritionally-poor, convenience foods like chips and chocolates are a great way to ensure healthy thinking and functioning kids. Educate your kids about the right food choices by creating tasty, happy lunch boxes.  Involve your child in the process and give them options to choose from. See our lunch box ideas, that are easy to prepare and so good to eat.

5. Recycle:

In these times there is no excuse not to recycle, with a host of companies that manage the collection of your recycled material. Supporting retailers that are environmentally conscious and use environmentally friendly packaging can also make a difference and finally, .recycling also means re-using your unwanted food or food that has gone off in, for example, worm farms and compost bins.