Good for you!

Food for thought, the planet and you

It’s spring! Just the time to celebrate a most hopeful fact: where food is concerned, what’s good for you is good for the planet. One can hardly have a clearer affirmation that we are a part of the natural world, and in this article we will look at the practical application of this happy situation. We’ll point out certain principles to guide you as we go along. And lest you think that “good for you” is measured only in many vitamins and few chemicals, we also mean that healthy, properly raised, really fresh food tastes better.

Let’s start with breakfast. Swiss Muesli can hardly be beat as a healthy way to start the day, and the fact that it has a long history

hints at the first principle: become a locavore.  Locavores eat locally grown food in so far as possible, and traditional food is generally that of local provenance. The oats, milk or yogurt and the raisins in Muesli are usually local products, in Switzerland as in the US. By eating locally grown food, you are avoiding the emission of tons of CO2 and doing your bit for global warming.

If you want to do even more for your health and that of the planet,

choose spelt (Dinkel in German) instead of oats. This 9000 year old nutty-flavored grain used to be farmed widely in central Europe and is now being brought back. Higher in nutrition than wheat, it is available as flakes in the Swiss Coop and health food stores. Googling “spelt” brought up a host of purchasing opportunities in the US as well. And now we get to the second guiding principle: by buying a reintroduced food type you are supporting biodiversity. Depending on just a few varieties, as modern agribusiness does, is exceedingly dangerous. The Irish potato famine was basically the result of an attack by a disease called “late blight” on the one type of potato grown at that time. By growing many varieties of crops, such disaster can be avoided.

You prefer eggs for breakfast? You guessed it: buying organic free-range (Freiland) eggs is a good choice for you, the chickens, and the environment. These eggs have been laid by hens allowed to roam freely, which is what chickens are meant to do. And here is principle no. three: choose food from animals that have been treated well. Aside from the ethical considerations, such food is better for you: free range eggs contain higher levels of nutrients and the mineral content of free-range eggs is usually higher, as the chickens pick up bits of minerals in the dirt on which they forage.

Well-fortified by your healthy breakfast, you may choose a salad

for lunch. Even in winter locally grown produce is available, as you can see by looking for the “regional” label in the Swiss Migros and Coop. For info on local winter foodstuffs in the US, go to http://localfoods.about.com/od/whatsinseason/a/WinterFruitVeg.htm. This brings us to the 3^rd principle: buy food in season. It has not been shipped from halfway around the world and of course it is fresher, is cheaper and tastes better. Informative for those of us in Switzerland are the Saisontabelle für Gemüse and Saisontabelle für Früchte, downloadable from www.wwf.ch>Tipps für den Alltag>Essen und Trinken> Downloads. At the Swiss Coop you can find pro specie rara “heirloom” varieties of such common produce as tomatoes, carrots, parsnips and potatoes – the latter available in a blue
variety! Even better is a visit to a farm market – and now we get to what Switzerland and the US have in common – great farm markets. I well

remember visiting one in Montpelier VT, and admiring the blue, pink, yellow re and white potatoes on sale. For info on heirloom produce in the States, google “heirloom seeds” for a plethora of companies selling these sometimes difficult to find seeds. The heirloom varieties being brought back enable you to enjoy a taste sensation and do your bit for biodiversity at the same time.

Back at the grocery store, you can exercise the 4th guiding

principle: choose organic and fair-trade food. To know which labels are top quality in Switzerland : go to www.wwf.ch> Service>Publications>Ratgeber Lebensmittel Label. By choosing organic food you are getting more nutrition with fewer chemicals and protecting the environment as well. By choosing fair-trade (usually the Max Havelaar brand in Europe) products you are ensuring better treatment of the farmers who produced the food, and this is the way to go when buying exotic items not produced locally or even regionally: bananas, coffee, chocolate, rice etc. For a list of purveyors of Fair Trade goods in the US, go to http://173.231.134.176/products-partners#tabset-tab-2s. In between the exotic and the locally grown are items like citrus fruits (local if you live in Florida or California) – these are at least regional and generally transported by train in Europe, truck in the US – better for the world than air transport.

 Thinking about supper? Many of us avoid beef since hearing that it is full of unhealthy fatty acids. But meat from cattle fed on grass, their natural diet, instead of the corn beloved by agribusiness, apparently has a higher proportion of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. In Switzerland, ook for the Migros Swiss Premium Rindfleisch (not organic, but largely grass fed), or Coop Naturafarm labels. Or ask your butcher. If you are in the US, you can read an exhaustive fount of information on grass-fed beef at http://foodrevolution.org/blog/the-truth-about-grassfed-beef/ and get purchasing info for your state at http://www.eatwild.com/PRODUCTS/index.html.

Perhaps you will choose fish instead, and here again, the varieties

of saltwater fish that are not over-fished are just the ones with the high omega-3 content your heart needs: Pacific salmon, herring, mackerel. You can find out more about what fish to buy in Switzerland from the WWF booklet Einkaufsführer Fisch: www.wwf.ch > Tipps für den Alltag>Essen und Trinken. In the States, the Marine Stewardship Council has a staggering amount of info at http://www.msc.org/where-to-buy/product-finder. Once you get acquainted with the MSC-approved brands, you can look for them or for the distinctive MSC logo when you shop.

So take good care of yourself when it comes to choosing your food. Your body and the environment will thank you!