What is "Green"?
"Going green" or "green living" is an attempt to get back to that process, or change our ways to fit back into nature. We can still live very well and use technology, we just need to be more aware of our choices, and how they affect us and our environment then choose the things that put us back in to that natural balance.
Where does the healthy part come in? As it turns out, natural products are healthier for us. The food we eat, what we use on our body, what we use around our home, and the energy we use.
What is "Green" Food?
Local, Organic, Natural? Understanding what it all means
To start eating greener, healthier food, the first change is to get your food as fresh as possible and prepare it yourself. Get away from hydrogenated fat, monosodium glutamate, artificial sweeteners, flavorings and colorings. Read your labels, avoid processed food and fast food restaurants.
Look for Certified Organic, Certified Naturally Grown and food that is raised or grown as close to you as possible. Local Harvest is a great place to look for farmers' markets, family farms and other sources of food grown in the United States.
Find farms, markets, restaurants and more selling local, sustainable, organic food in the US and Canada at the Eat Well Guide using your postal/zip code.
Those who live in the UK should check out the Wholesome Food Association, BUY-LOCAL.NET and BigBarn.
Littlelocalfood.com has resources for the UK, Canada and US.
Even though the US salmonella outbreak of 2008 is now being blamed on jalapeno peppers, this article, The Tomato Pickle from June 2008, does a great job at explaining why buying local is always the best choice.
It may take a bit of work at first, but once you figure out where to get the freshest food near you, the better off you'll be. If you really can't get fresh locally grown food, try for frozen food, especially frozen vegetables with no additives. Vegetables that have been frozen soon after they were harvested will retain more of their nutrition than ones that either sit in storage, or get shipped long distances.
Don't totally discount canned foods, some things like tomatoes just don't freeze well. Look on the label and see what else went into that can, and is it really something you want to eat? Canned food is better than nothing, and the canning process, while it kills off some nutrition, it also kills off harmful microorganisms.
Is Your Food Fresh
Fresh Tomato Time
Tomatoes may be my favorite fresh food. My family has grown tomatoes for as long as I can remember. I can recall one Summer when my grandfather accidentally picked a basket full of unripe tomatoes by accident. My grandmother sliced them, and fried them up for dinner. They still tasted better than just about any store bought tomato I've ever had.
Tomatoes are a great example of how the food you buy in the store, unless the store is getting it from a local farm, is harvested before it is ripe so it can survive storage and transportation conditions. Ethylene gas is used on tomatoes and other fruits to artificially ripen them.
Those green tomatoes I ate as a kid were still better than the artificially ripened store bought tomatoes because they were fresh, we ate them just hours after they had been growing in the garden. If they had been red when picked, they would have been filled with a lot more nutrients than the ones found at the supermarket.
That's not to say that using ethylene gas is always bad, Bananas do not ripen while on the vine, and if you purchase a bunch that still has a lot of green, you can get them to turn yellow faster by just placing them in a paper bag. The bananas naturally emit ethylene gas, and the more gas that gets trapped in the bag, the faster the bananas ripen.
You can even hasten the process by tossing a yellow banana, maybe even one with some brown started, in with the bunch of green bananas.
When we get close to the end of the season, we pick tomatoes just a little before they are fully ripe, especially if there's a risk that they may actually start to go bad before we get to them. Still, the ones we leave out on the window sill to get to that last stage of redness are better than anything I've ever bought in the store.
Learn more at Commercially-Grown and Hydroponic Tomatoes and "Still No Free Lunch: Nutrient levels in U.S. food supply eroded by pursuit of high yields"
Micro Eco-Farming:
Prospering from Backyard to Small Acreage in Partnership with the Earth (Paperback)
Questions such as What can be grown? How do farmers reach their markets? and What sustainable production methods can be used? are answered in detail and supported by hundreds of real-life examples.
A variety of unusual uses for crops are also provided, including producing organic spa products, building an urban greenhouse, creating a heritage rose farm, or cultivating a connoisseur apple orchard.
Ecologists, amateur gardeners, farmers, and those interested in sustainable living will enjoy this in-depth look at the spiritually and financially rewarding aspects of this new field.
Micro Eco-Farming: Prospering from Backyard to Small Acreage in Partnership with the Earth
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 12/09/2009)
List Price: $16.95
Author Barbara Berst Adams is a micro eco-farmer.
She also conducts research and writes about global microfarming techniques and creating a sustainable world.
She lives in Anacortes, Washington.
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Best Ways To Save Your Food For Later
Freezing and canning are two of the most popular ways to preserve food, but they aren't the only ways.
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow
Surefire techniques and great recipes for keeping the harvest!
"Preserving Summer's Bounty takes a giant step ahead in preserving advice. This up-to-the-minute guide pays tribute to your grandmother's techniques for 'putting up' vegetables, but what I like best are the quick and easy modern methods using the microwave, the freezer and more. These fast answers should lure even the busiest among us into storing the precious harvest of the garden."--Marian Morash, Author of The Victory Garden Cookbook
"Preserving Summer's Bounty is a treasure trove of sage advice and enticing recipes. It's a delightful book that will let you enjoy your garden's harvest all year long."--Carol Hupping, Editor of Stocking Up III
Amazon Price: $12.91 (as of 12/09/2009)
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Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
Root cellaring, as many people remember but only a few people still practice, is a way of using the earth's naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables. Root cellaring, as Mike and Nancy Bubel explains here, is a no-cost, simple, low-technology, energy-saving way to keep the harvest fresh all year long.
In Root Cellaring, the Bubels tell how to successfully use this natural storage approach. It's the first book devoted entirely to the subject, and it covers the subject with a thoroughness that makes it the only book you'll ever need on root cellaring.
Root Cellaring will tell you:
* How to choose vegetable and fruit varieties that will store best
* Specific individual storage requirements for nearly 100 home garden crops
* How to use root cellars in the country, in the city, and in any environment
* How to build root cellars, indoors and out, big and small, plain and fancy
* Case histories -- reports on the root cellaring techniques and experiences of many households all over North America
Root cellaring need not be strictly a country concept. Though it's often thought of as an adjunct to a large garden, a root cellar can in fact considerably stretch the resources of a small garden, making it easy to grow late succession crops for storage instead of many rows for canning and freezing. Best of all, root cellars can easily fit anywhere. Not everyone can live in the country, but everyone can benefit from natural cold storage.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 12/09/2009)
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Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation
Typical books about preserving garden produce nearly always assume that modern "kitchen gardeners" will boil or freeze their vegetables and fruits. Yet here is a book that goes back to the future-celebrating traditional but little-known French techniques for storing and preserving edibles in ways that maximize flavor and nutrition.
Translated into English, and with a new foreword by Deborah Madison, this book deliberately ignores freezing and high-temperature canning in favor of methods that are superior because they are less costly and more energy-efficient.
As Eliot Coleman says in his foreword to the first edition, "Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural 'poetic' methods that maintain or enhance the life in food. The poetic techniques produce... foods that have been celebrated for centuries and are considered gourmet delights today."
Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning offers more than 250 easy and enjoyable recipes featuring locally grown and minimally refined ingredients. It is an essential guide for those who seek healthy food for a healthy world.
Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 12/09/2009)
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Preparing Your Food
How you cook is often just as important as what you cook, and how fresh it is.
When cooking with fats, keep away from trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils. Don't cut fats out altogether, that's not healthy, our bodies require fat to run properly.
Everyday Raw
Enjoy raw food every day! This book is simple, straightforward, and easy to use. The recipes are for everyone interested in fresh, healthy, local, and organic food that tastes great. Whether it is a smoothie, a salad, or a midmorning snack, you will love the fresh and delicious recipes Matthew Kenney has created.
The book also includes substantial main dishes, like Pad Thai and Tomato, Basil, and Ricotta Pizza, as well as decadent desserts like Frozen Goji Berry Souffle and Chocolate Hazelnut Tart.
The chapter Unbaked teaches you to make crackers and breads using raw food techniques and ingredients, and the chapter on Spreads, Dips, and Sauces is filled with favorites like Pineapple Mango Salsa and Roasted Pepper Hummus with Lime.
Many of the recipes require no additional equipment, and others something as simple as a blender.
Everyday Raw is for everyday people who want healthy food and great flavor. If you want to eat well and feel great, this book is for you.
Matthew Kenney is a chef, restaurateur, caterer, and food writer. He has appeared on the Today Show, the Food Network, and numerous morning and talk shows. He has been nominated for the James Beard Rising Star Award. Matthew has been the chef and partner of numerous successful restaurants, including Matthew's, Canteen, Commune, Mezze, and The Plant.
Matthew's passion for raw food has taken him into new realms of creativity, flavor, and healthy living. He is the author of several cookbooks, including Raw Food Real World and Matthew Kenney's Mediterranean Cooking.
Amazon Price: $13.59 (as of 12/09/2009)
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The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life
Do you think that healthy food couldn't possibly taste good? Does the idea of "eating healthy" conjure up images of roughage and steamed vegetables? Author Ellie Krieger, host of Food Network's Healthy Appetite, will change all that.
A registered dietitian, Ellie is also a lover and proponent of good, fresh food, simply but deliciously prepared. And she's not about denial--no nonfat foods here, because when you take the fat out of natural foods, in go the chemicals.
Don't deny yourself butter--use a pat of it, but put it front and center on those mashed potatoes, so you can revel in it with all your senses.
The Food You Crave is all you'll need to change the way you eat and change the way you feel. It contains 200 recipes that cover every meal of the day and every craving you might have.
Every recipe contains a complete nutritional breakdown, as well as tips on ingredients and techniques that will keep you eating smart and eating well.
Amazon Price: $18.48 (as of 12/09/2009)
List Price: $28.00
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Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats
Based on more than two decades of research, Eat Fat, Lose Fat flouts conventional wisdom by revealing that so-called healthy vegetable oils (such as corn and soybean) are in large part responsible for our national obesity and health crisis, while the saturated fats traditionally considered "harmful" (from such foods as coconut, butter, and meat) are essential to weight loss and health.
Just in time for the FDA's new mandatory trans fats labeling, the three programs in this book, which features delicious recipes, show that eating healthy fats is the answer to losing weight and achieving good health for a lifetime.
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 12/09/2009)
List Price: $16.00
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Choosing the Right Fats (Natural Health Guide)
This book will introduce you to one of the secrets of life and good health.
The essential fats found in healing oils of freshly pressed almonds, flaxseed, sunflower and seasme seeds, hazelnuts, pumpkin, pistachio, and olives all have life-giving properties.
They feed every cell, tissue, gland, and organ of the body.
In this book Udo Erasmus dispels many of the myths about fat. He tells which oils to avoid and which ones can help normalize your weight. He has advice for athletes who want to improve their stamina and performance.
Erasmus shares decades of experience working with oils, developing what he calls a practical ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 essential fats. Includes delicious recipes to show you how to integrate healing oils and fats into your daily meals, naturally.
Amazon Price: $9.56 (as of 12/09/2009)
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When You Can't Get What You Want
The Food Substitutions Bible: More than 5,000 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment and Techniques (Paperback)
The Food Substitutions Bible: More than 5,000 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment and Techniques
Amazon Price: (as of 12/09/2009)
The best and most complete substitutions guide, by the author of A Man, A Can, A Plan.
Some of the greatest cooking discoveries are the result of creatively substituting one ingredient, one piece of equipment, or one cooking technique for another.
The Food Substitutions Bible compiles all types of substitutions into one comprehensive, easy-to-use handbook. Simply organized from A to Z, its 1,500 entries have more than 5,000 substitutions. This reference covers: - Common cooking measure equivalents - Metric conversion tables - International equivalency tables for temperature, weight and volume - Emergency substitutions - Time-saving substitutions - Healthy substitutions - Alternatives for hard-to-find and ethnic ingredients - Alternatives for vegetarians - Innovative ideas for varying the flavor of a dish in countless ways
Every substitution includes instructions with exact proportions for accurate, reliable replacements. When multiple substitutions are given within an entry, they are organized into categories for quick reference. Some of these include: If You Don't Have It, To Vary the Flavor, To Save Time, and For Better Health. The book also has an appendix with handy reference charts.
The Food Substitutions Bible is the most authoritative, comprehensive and easy-to-use book on substitutions ever published.
Spice Up Your Food
Look for recipes that use cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, garlic, cayenne pepper, or paprika. You can add these to things you may never have thought of and add a little extra benefit to every day foods.
Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More
Everything you need to know about growing your favorite herbs using safe, natural, all-organic methods!
Practical tips and advice on all aspects of successful herb growing.
A wealth of great ideas and helpful how-to on using herbs in cooking, crafts, cosmetics, health care, insect repellents, and more.
Illustrated herb directory featuring all the most popular herbs-- from aloe to yarrow-- each with complete information on growing, care, harvesting, and uses.
"Your Backyard Herb Garden captures all the excitement of herbs and makes them easy to grow and enjoy."--Susan McClure, author of The Herb Gardener
"A skilled gardener and teacher, Miranda Smith knows her subject well, writes about it easily, and obviously enjoys the special charms of herbs. She conveys all this in Your Backyard Herb Garden. Her no-nonsense advice on soil building, fertilizing, pest control, and watering is pure gold. She also covers harvesting and using herbs in teas, vinegars, cosmetics, potpourris, crafts, and more. Do try Miranda's rose geranium jelly!"--Bertha Reppert, author of Growing Your Herb Business and Herbs with Confidence, and herbarist in residence at The Rosemary House, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Miranda Smith teaches organic and sustainable methods of growing herbs, vegetables, and fruits at the New England Small Farm Institute. She lives in Belchertown, Massachusetts.
Amazon Price: $12.91 (as of 12/09/2009)
List Price: $18.99
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The Spice Bible: Essential Information and More Than 250 Recipes Using Spice, SpiceMixes, and Spice Pastes
The only book on spices that any chef or aspiring cook will ever need, The Spice Bible is a fully comprehensive guide to the fascinating history and enticing culinary uses of 45 fiery foods from around the world. Each entry-from ajowan through wolfberry-includes a description of the spice's origin and uses, guidelines on how to integrate it into your own cooking, and a trove of other helpful information. (Which are the best spices to pair with saffron? When is the right time to throw away that leftover ginger?)
Like its companion volume, The Produce Bible, this must-have book also features more than 250 recipes-for appetizers, soups, entrees, side dishes, breads, desserts, and more-that highlight each ingredient's distinctive taste and character. Carrot soup with caraway butter, seared salmon with sesame and cucumber, and beef fillet poached in Asian-spiced broth are among the delectable dishes presented here, all created with flavorful spices and easily mastered by any cook.
The book also includes tips on purchasing and storing spices, along with sections on spice mixes and pastes such as curry, zaatar, and chermoula. Filled with evocative photographs throughout, The Spice Bible is an invaluable resource for anyone looking for a pinch of personality in their cooking-or a dash of inspiration.
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/09/2009)
List Price: $29.95
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Herbs & Spices: The Cook's Reference
The first illustrated guide to cover the whole spectrum of herbs and spices for culinary use.
Herbs & Spices is an indispensable reference that shows how to prepare fresh and dried herbs, how to use herbs and spices in cooking, and details everything that other books on the subject leave out. Containing a unique collection of recipes, from herb and spice mixes to rubs, pastes, salsas, and marinades, these authentic formulas will encourage cooks to think creatively and experiment on their own.
Grouped by aroma and taste, with step-by-step preparation techniques and beautiful full-color photography, this book describes 60 herbs and the benefits of using them fresh or dried, and focuses on 60 spices from around the world, with a look at the early spice trade and how cross-cultural fusion has impacted on contemporary cooking.
Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 12/09/2009)
List Price: $30.00
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byComments? What do you think about having a Healthier Lifestyle with a Greener Diet?
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Reply
- JayBeacham JayBeacham Nov 1, 2009 @ 1:09 am
- Personally, I can verify that those not chemically grown turnips that I ate day before yesterday sure tasted better than the ones not organically grown. Carrots too? My home grown peaches and apricots and almonds and loquats and every other fresh from the garden fruit or vegetable. Tomato from the stores are sick compared to fresh off the vine from my own garden. I hardly eat apples from the store with food wax and all the other poisons on them.
Jay Beacham
http://www.squidoo.com/ahealthyme
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Reply
- JayBeacham JayBeacham Nov 1, 2009 @ 12:48 am
- This is good stuff. Wish it were on my lens, a healthy me, but it is very good.
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Reply
- robdel88 robdel88 Oct 20, 2009 @ 1:15 am
- Really great lens. Two things I always grow in my garden. Tomatoes and Basil. Being Italian, these are essential and very easy to grow. Thanks for the info on oils. Cheers...
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- lakeerieartists lakeerieartists Apr 7, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
- This lens is being featured today on the Living the Green Organic Lifestyle blog. :)
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- dc64 dc64 Apr 3, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
- There is something special about fresh ripe tomatoes! It's sad how many people think the tomatoes you buy in your local grocery store is what tomatoes really taste like. Get a tomato straight from the garden and you won't believe how different the taste is. Great lens you have here.
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