Food and Nutrition
Are You Eating Cool Food? Jo-Ann Heslin, RD, Food & Nutrition Columnist, www.HealthNewsDigest.com
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May 11, 2008 - 6:03:00 PM

Are You Eating Cool Food? Jo-Ann Heslin, RD, Food & Nutrition Columnist, www.HealthNewsDigest.com

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Everywhere you turn there are messages to “go green.” Beware of your carbon footprint, eat organic and sustainable foods, use nontoxic cleaners, and drive hybrid cars. As we crawl out of a decade of over comsumption and overspending, it is time to see what each of us can do to save our big blue marble -- earth.

Did you know that the current US food system is a major contributor to global warming, using up to 19% of the total energy supply in the country? The US food system uses the equivalent of 450 billion gallons of oil every year and the average American dinner travels 1,500 miles before it reaches your plate. The Center for Food Safety and the Cornerstone Campaign have launched the Cool Foods Campaign to encourage you to make better choices and reduce your FoodPrint.

The “coolest” foods have the lowest FoodPrint and are grown and produced without excess greenhouse gases. The campaign urges consumers, retailers and restaurants to choose more organic, local and whole foods to help combat global warming. To reduce your FoodPrint, the Cool Foods Campaign suggests 5 basic strategies.

1. Buy organic and look for the USDA organic label. Organic foods are produced without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, growth hormones, and antibiotics, and they are not genetically engineered or irradiated. Synthetic fertilizers emit millions of pounds of greenhouse gases each year, whereas organic farming uses less energy and no synthetically produced pesticides and fertilizers. Organic farming, however, is more labor intensive and the products are usually more expensive to buy.

2. Limit your consumption of conventional meat and dairy foods and farmed seafood; when eaten, buy organic or wild caught varieties. Yearly, US livestock consumes half of all grains and oilseeds grown. Eating less meat would make crop consumption more energy efficient. Including a few vegetarian meals or even a few vegetarian days into your weekly food plans would not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but would boost the fruit, vegetable, and whole grain intake of most Americans. Over-fishing natural fish species is a global problem, making wild caught fish less available. In many markets in the US fresh seafood is simply not available.

3. Do your best to avoid processed foods all together. Use certified organic processed foods as a good alternative. Few Americans could make the leap to using no processed foods unless we all vowed to bake our own bread, make our own cheese, and can our own vegetables. Organic counterparts are available, but can be a costly alternative. Choosing some organic and some conventional products, along with buying more fresh foods might be a compromise.

4. Choose locally produced foods or foods grown as close to your home as possible. All fresh produce now carries a COOL (Country of Origin Label) sticker. Kiwis from Australia or Italy, mangos from South America, and watermelon in Maine in the dead of winter, all quality for frequent-flyer miles. Eating seasonally is something we did as children because the variety of global produce was not available. Going back to these seasonal choices is wise. During apple season, if you live in New York, buy New York apples rather than those shipped across the country from Washington state. Many of us don’t think about geographic choices when we buy foods, maybe we should.

5. Is the food you are buying excessively packaged? Extra packaging requires additional energy to produce metal, paper or plastic to make the food container. The Cool Foods Campaign suggests purchasing loose produce and bulk beans, pasta, seeds, nuts and grains. In theory this may work in some markets, but this option will not always be available. Bulk shopping bins open other issues of proper storage and contamination. Each of us can bring reusable grocery bags when we go shopping. You are seeing more of these totes available for sale or offered as give-aways and some have become very trendy and chic. This practice is commonplace in many countries worldwide.

Though all these suggestions are valid, the population, as a whole, will have trouble adopting them. Rural and inner city markets often do not offer the breath of selection found in sprawling suburban supermarkets. Lately, prices of organic foods are have risen more dramatically than traditional foods, making them less available to those on a tight budget. And, in our busy, two-job families, cooking from scratch has fallen out of favor. Each of us can make modest changes in the way we eat and improve the impact our choices have on the environment. If you can’t become “cool” try for “lukewarm.” It’s a start.

For more information go to: www.coolfoodscampaign.org, www.centerforfoodsafety.org, and www.cornerstonecampaign.org.

© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 5 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
The Calorie Counter, 4th Ed., 2007
The Compete Food Counter, 2nd Ed., 2006
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to www.TheNutritionExperts.com.

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