Locavores. The 100-Mile Diet. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Local is the new organic, and with good reason. Most food travels thousands of miles, at a tremendous cost to our precious resources, just to land on your plate. Eating locally is better for the environment. But it may also be better for your health (what? better than organic?).
Cookthinker blog tried out the 100-mile diet recently. This is their photo.
From the 100-Mile Diet authors’ page:
“When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles—call it ‘the SUV diet.’ On the first day of spring, 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon (bios) chose to confront this unsettling statistic with a simple experiment. For one year, they would buy or gather their food and drink from within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia.” – The 100-Mile Diet
Eating locally – which necessarily means seasonally – is certainly what our ancestors did. These days, Americans wolf down upwards of 4,000 calories a day from refined grain, factory-raised meat and heavily-treated dairy – with little regard for how the food was grown, how it will affect your health, and what it’s doing to the planet. We have Food Processing magazine. Ridiculous processed and refined food “products”. And let’s not forget about Cheese Food. What we don’t have is sustainable agriculture, a humane food production system, or a healthy population. You know, the little things.
The locavore movement is spreading beyond its Berkeley bubble. (Even Google has gotten with the program and serves its employees free lunches comprised of local delicacies and garden vegetables.)
Some questions for the Apples:
- Is “organic” more marketing than meaningful?
- What’s better: organic produce or organic animal products?
- Do you eat locally, organically, both, or neither?
Further Reading:
Interesting Flavor Combinations for Bored Taste Buds
The Fuming Fuji Rants Against Processed Food Marketed to Kids
Weird Processed Food Ingredients (Mold! It Tastes Like Chicken!)
If You Have to Brag About Your “All-White Meat Chicken”…
Technorati Tags: 100 mile diet, locavores, local food movement
Posted By: Sara
And here you thought chicken fries were bizarre. Nugget, you’ve been outdone. Inquiring minds want to know: what’s next? Chicken spirals, perhaps? Chicken braids? Or how about a lovely tray of chicken cubes?
Technorati Tags: food, finger food, fast food
Posted By: Worker Bee
Hey gang, I’m off to Dallas for a couple days on business, but you’re in great hands with the Bees. I’m confident you’ll all find plenty of trouble to get into while I’m away. Quick FYI: I’m working on a whale of a proposal for publication next week. I’d intended to make it a two-fer and publish the first part today in lieu of Primal Health, because it’s much lengthier than what I typically publish (yes, that’s possible). Suffice it to say I’m not mincing any words…but there are plenty of them. At any rate, the health care system is a hot topic, and a critical one, and there are all kinds of conversations for new proposals going on in the blogosphere. I hope you’ll come back next Wednesday to check out my radical suggestion. I guarantee you’ll have something to say about it.
In the meantime, a few good links:
Getting Off the Treadmill of Life
Why Most Published Research Findings Are False (author’s reply to this ongoing debate)
Have you ordered your Fuming Fuji mug?
Posted By: Mark Sisson
So much in love with blog changes…
Glad you’re enjoying the new and improved comment structure. Thanks for the constructive feedback, all. In the spirit of healthy changes, here’s the updated MDA blogroll. If you think there’s a great blog I’m evidently clueless about, please give me a shout and I’ll check it out.
General Health, Health Care, Lifestyles, and Perspectives:
Weight Loss, Diet, Nutrition, Food:
Fitness and Body:
Science and World:
Adventures in Ethics and Science
The Mind:
Personal Improvement and Life Hacks:
The Bigs*, Marketing, and The Man:
Around the Web:
If I forgot you, please let me know.
UPDATE 7/24/07:
Six Until Me (great D-blogging)
Fitness Destinations (daily fitness tips)
Dr. Briffa (a good look at good health)
UPDATE 7/27/07:
60 in 3 (weight loss journey)
*Pharma, Agra, Puff, Moo
Posted By: Mark Sisson
News links worth noting today:
Dietary Sugar and Macular Degeneration
Starchy, sugary fare that rates high on the glycemic index increases your risk for macular degeneration (our leading cause of vision loss). Aside from reducing – or eliminating – your refined carbohydrate intake, focus on prevention as well. For example, antioxidants can help keep your eyes healthy as you age. Think green and red vegetables, fruit, fish, nuts, eggs, and a fish oil supplement. Nix the sugar, folks.
Noise Pollution
Remember silence? Yeah, me either. Even in remote locales like the beaches of Thailand or my own exurb backyard, noise from jets is an ever-present disturbance. In London, it’s apparently so bad, that city’s residents are calling it a threat to mental health. Constant loud engines, honks, alarms and sirens: certainly not something with which our ancestors had to deal. I’m sure someone’s going to tell the Brits they’re being pansies. But I’m inclined to think that persistent, low-level stress of this sort is more serious than we know.
Further reading:
The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar and Type 2 Diabetes
Boost Your Serotonin Naturally
Technorati Tags: glycemic index, macular degeneration, health news, noise pollution
Posted By: Mark Sisson
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