Why eating locally and in season is important for physical wellbeing – plus food revival tips
Food is obviously key to survival, what I can’t fathom is people not understanding that the better the quality, which isn’t always price related, the healthier you are. Just as the fuel you put in an engine, affects the performance of the machine. Yet it seems that only recently this is beginning to be taken seriously in terms of physical wellbeing?!! If you mainline sugar like a crack whore, like I do, expect a fat arse, a pair of knackered kidneys, a face as lined as a road map and spots! This blog will address why eating seasonally is important to physical wellbeing.
Eating in season locally
If you think about it, which clearly you are or else you wouldn’t be reading this, eating in season is an easy way to sync with nature. Taking that a step further, eating what’s available to you locally where you live, yeah exactly or near where you live. Like we know with honey, if you’re a hay fever sufferer, it’s recommended to eat the local honey!
A smattering of food shopping history
Clearly, before the age of the Supermarket, this was a given. You ate what you could get your hands on, literally. Food was priced to reflect its origin, availability and growing conditions, being pricier it wasn’t so easy to over indulge or binge eat. This meant people took the time to really appreciate and notice what they ate.
Free from preservatives
Food had to be homemade with natural preservatives, with less salt and sugar being used to tempt and overwhelm our taste buds, they were expensive ingredients.
Salt and sugar free
Try taking either of those two out of your diet for a bit and initially everything tastes rather dull, until your senses recover and you really can taste the difference. It will do wonders for your digestion system, especially your kidneys!
Modern Convenience
But we’ve swayed away from this in the last 20 years, more people are travelling and discovering new foods and creating a market for them here. Plus, being a totally multicultural race there is a wider range of tastes to cater for. And, we love and need the convenience of pre-prepared food to go with the crazy speed at which we are largely forced to live. It can take bloody hours to create a hearty dish from scratch, which is then gone in a matter of minutes. It can feel like it’s not worth it, but it totally is for creating good physical wellbeing.
Benefits of eating local food
If you can eat seasonally, there are so many benefits for not just you but the World at large. Firstly, the food itself is at its best, giving you what you need calorifically and nutritionally – nature is one clever lady.
Secondly, you’re helping to reduce our reliance on imported food, whilst boosting the local farming economy. In light of Brexit, this grows ever more important.
Important to Physical wellbeing
I am evangelical about this, there’s too many reasons for why eating locally and in season is important. But the most outstanding is our collective health and physical wellbeing, we are what we eat!
Family challenges to eating locally and in season
It’s very tempting when you’ve got fussy children and a very limited desire to cook, as I have, to simply get what you’ve always got that people will actually eat without giving you a headache! But I do buy British whenever that’s an option and I do try to moderate my buying predominantly to what’s in season. I do this by buying from local farms.
Wild food foraging
I wild food forage too, in fact this is the only food I truly enjoy cooking and strangely (well not really) my kids like to. Read my blog on foraging wild food in Autumn.
It helps that I aspire to eat seasonally, it’s good to have something to aim for to keep life interesting. There are some things I just can’t compromise upon, despite my husband’s constant whining about the size of the household’s monthly food bills.
Buying local meat
I only buy local farm meat, where I know how they feed, treat and kill the animals. An animal that has been reared to have a good quality of life and killed in a humane way will have a lot less cortisol in their flesh when their life ceases; besides, I’ve got enough of my own cortisol to contend with!
This can be a pain when we’re eating out, but I always go for the local choice and make a point of asking which local farm the food originates from, then Google it to be sure; too many people falsely cashing in on “local”!
Why you don’t want cortisol in your meat
Cortisol is a big threat to physical wellbeing, it increases risk for depression, mental illness, and lowers life expectancy. We release cortisol in response to fear or stress from our adrenal glands, it’s part of our fight-or-flight mechanism.
Though I can see the attraction of a lower life expectancy at various times during these child rearing years I don’t need to increase my levels of depression or challenge my mental wellbeing any further!
Local food tastes better
I always buy local raw honey, even when travelling if I can, unpasteurised is best for all the goodness. Yes it’s expensive and given how much we go through a week, at least a jar! And, I could bow to my husbands continual pressure and buy some cheap squeezy stuff. But I’m too canny, I know the benefits of eating local honey, it helps with allergies and I just can’t compromise physical wellbeing on any level. Plus, there really is a significant difference in taste.
Local eggs are another thing I am committed too. If you know the chickens are living a good quality and happy life then again the this will be reflected in the quality of the egg’s taste and nutrition.
Supermarkets are good for gluten and dairy free food
I can see why supermarkets have their place in the World, as someone who’s gluten and largely dairy free they are a kind of must. Gluten free food still costs about 3 times as much as normal equivalents and is not readily available in farm shops. In the rare case when it is, it is ridiculously overpriced and when you’re never quite sure how your cooking is going to turn out it’s simply not worth the financial risk.
They also make food shopping easier and when you have a baby or small children, they facilitate a one stop shop experience and great value for money.
Supermarket food lacks taste
However, their necessity for bulk purchasing to keep their business viable, coupled with their quality controlled uniformity can’t compete on taste with local farm grown produce. Obviously they win hands down when it comes to ‘shelf life’, but we know why that is!
Useful tips to revive food
Here’s some useful Tips for reviving/getting the most out of your food:
Lemons: Each one contains about 3 tbsp of juice, to actually get that you need to either roll the lemon or microwave for 20 seconds so that the cellular structure breaks down to release the juice. Always cut your lemons length way…
Refreshing stale bread: Put it in a plastic bag with a stick of celery and leave overnight. The loaf will absorb the humidity of the celery giving it a fresher taste and bounce without making it taste of celery….
Champagne Rescue: Drop in a raisin or two, they will initially sink before creating bubbles and won’t affect the flavour
Colour to Red & White Veg: Add a small squeeze of lemon juice whilst cooking to preserve pigment or flavonoids
Too Salty: Use either a peeled quartered potato to act like a sponge or a pinch of brown sugar
Burnt Rice: Remove from the heat and place a piece of white bread on top for about 10 minutes to absorb the burnt flavour
Keep Veg Fresher for longer: Line your veg draw with paper towels to absorb the excess water
Bendy Old Carrots: Revive in ice-cold water for an hour
Keeping Onions & Garlic Fresh for up to 6 months: Store them in sheer tights, tie a knot above each onion/ garlic and store in a cool dry place away from other foods
Safe Berries: Dunk them in warm water to kill off any moulds
Magic Bananas: Make other fruit ripen quicker so keep them away from anything you don’t want ripening too quickly. Separate them from their bunch to make them last longer.
Final Word
You now know why it is important for physical wellbeing to eat locally and in season. I’ve given you some handy tips on how to rescue and revive your food, to help restore some of the financial investment you’ve made. Because, buying quality food is imperative to looking after your mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing, you are simply worth it!
Next Steps
If you wish to improve your physical wellbeing by eating well, I run a workshop on Wild Superfoods, which are easy to forage and will really make a marked improvement on your physicality.
If you wish to gain a greater understand of your overall physical wellbeing, I run a workshop on Body Healing, where you will learn biology in a relevant way.
These are both done one to one or in small groups of friends, which is the way I prefer to work.
Local Farm Shops
