Eat Seasonally, Locally, & Sustainably
I always assure my friends outside of Jackson Hole that the views of the valley never get old. One of the main reasons why is how different it can look between seasons. I grew up in an area with 4 distinct seasons, and I think that is another reason why I love living here so much. It’s just another way it reminds me of my north Georgia roots.
Last week I was asked about the next nutrition trend for 2021. I had several answers to this question because you can never tell what the media will promote and which trends will catch on. But if I had to choose what the next trend should be, it is eating seasonally, locally and sustainably. Eat produce that is in season (for one reason, it’s cheaper), choose produce and products that are local to support your community, and choose foods that will sustain the environment if possible.
The post below written by Kayla Martin, my nutrition colleague and a nutrition educator located in Montana, discusses the advantages of eating this way in more detail. No matter where I have lived, it has always been important to me to support my community. That means I try to buy local products, support other small business owners, and consume local ingredients when possible.
Eating Seasonally, Locally, & Sustainably
Have you ever found yourself standing in the grocery store frustrated that you can’t find any fresh tomatoes in January? Same. In our society, instant gratification is the norm. We aren’t used to waiting around until certain foods are in season, we’d prefer to eat them now! However, there are an abundance of reasons that eating both seasonally and locally are better for you and the environment.
When we talk about foods grown seasonally and locally, we’re primarily discussing plant products. Although there are different seasons for animal products, for the sake of this article we’ll focus solely on plants!
The first major benefit of eating seasonally and locally is TASTE! Have you ever noticed the difference in flavors between a tomato grown in your neighbors garden and one purchased from the store? They’re hardly the same thing. Produce grown for the markets is mass-produced in an effort to increase the quantity of the product, but not the quality. In fact, plant breeders choose produce that ripens at a uniform rate and has an extended shelf life over flavor (1). Meaning in their selective breeding processes, food that lasts longer are selected over food that tastes better. Produce grown and ripened when they naturally prefer to do so taste much better than anything forced to grow out of season.
A second benefit of eating seasonally and locally is that it’s better for your health. Foods grown, picked, and eaten during their preferred season have more nutrients than those grown in the off season. Many food manufacturers use post-harvest treatments to chemically induce ripening in fruits and vegetables grown out of season (2). This practice impairs the natural ripening rhythms of the plants and largely diminishes their nutrient density. Although these practices keep our grocery stores stocked year around, they offer us foods that aren’t nearly as nutrient dense (3). Furthermore, many of the foods grown out of season are coated with a type of wax that keeps them good for longer. However, the longer the produce sits on the shelf, the fewer nutrients it has when we eat it. Therefore, eating food at its peak ripeness is best for our health and our taste buds!
Have you ever considered how a mango gets to Montana in January? Although that question is reminiscent of the old, “why did the chicken cross the road” joke, this one has many negative implications. A mango is presumably grown somewhere tropical, picked by local people, transported by vehicle to an airplane, flown across the world, and then transported by vehicle again to my local grocery store. At which point the mango is many days or even weeks old and has travelled more than most adults. It’s easy to purchase the items on your list without giving much thought to the environmental impact, but the fuel emissions of the long distance travel our produce requires are damaging for our earth (4). On the other hand, the produce grown by my local farmer is simply picked and dropped off at my grocery store- offering food that’s closer to peak ripeness and has contributed a much smaller carbon footprint. Less miles travelled means less pollution.
The distance and length of time produce must survive before it reaches the grocery store shelves also contributes to the amount of pesticides used. Think about how fragile a blueberry is and how unlikely it is that it survives the journey from a field in California to a grocery store in Kansas. It does so in part because of pesticides. Crops are genetically engineered to have thicker skins and a longer shelf life- offering more year round variety in your grocery stores for both produce and pesticides!
Eating seasonally and locally not only supports your local community of farmers, reduces the impact on the environment, and improves your nutrition, but it’s also better for your wallet. Is it a bummer that cucumbers in the middle of winter are 5 dollars more than they are in the spring? Absolutely. However, let this be a natural cue reminding you to purchase items grown in that particular season. It will be more cost effective for you in the long run.
A final benefit to consider is how eating seasonally and locally increases the variety of nutrients your body receives. Each season offers different produce to nurture our bodies and by following nature’s patterns, we can easily ensure that all our nutrient needs are being met! You likely crave warming root vegetables in December and cooling cucumbers in the summer. How convenient that the earth offers just what our bodies ask for and need?!
Eating seasonally and locally is easy when you shop at local farmers markets because they naturally offer what’s in season. However, it’s not impossible to be mindful of what’s in season, even when you’re in a grocery store full of every option imaginable. Here is a link that outlines the fruits, vegetables, herbs and spice grown in each season. Don’t be discouraged if you’re overwhelmed at first, overtime, it will become natural to shop and eat this way!
Sources:
Folta KM, Klee HJ. Sensory sacrifices when we mass-produce mass produce. Hortic Res. 2016;3:16032. Published 2016 Jul 13. doi:10.1038/hortres.2016.32
Mahajan PV, Caleb OJ, Singh Z, Watkins CB, Geyer M. Postharvest treatments of fresh produce. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2014;372(2017):20130309. Published 2014 May 5. doi:10.1098/rsta.2013.0309
Barrett D. Maximizing the Nutritional Values of Fruits and Vegetables. Center for Excellence in Fruit and Vegetable Quality. 2 007; 40-44.
Sean T. Hammond, James H. Brown, Joseph R. Burger, Tatiana P. Flanagan, Trevor S. Fristoe, Norman Mercado-Silva, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Jordan G. Okie, Food Spoilage,
Storage, and Transport: Implications for a Sustainable Future, BioScience, Volume 65, Issue 8, 01 August 2015, Pages 758–768, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biv081
