Eating Well–Without Trying So Hard or Worrying So Much (part 3)

Making the Leap

Resisting Peer Pressure  If seasonal, place-based eating yields so many helpful benefits, why do we tolerate the many downsides of the global food system?  In a nutshell, most of us don’t really decide what we eat.  Food marketers largely decide what our hand reaches for at the grocery store.  So if this is your year to begin joining the wonderful convergence of good that comes with seasonal eating, begin by re-gaining the decision-making power over your food choices.  It often takes eating in a way that others view as strange and weird. So get comfortable making food choices free of the peer pressure generated by food marketing experts.

Start a Learning Adventure  If seasonal eating doesn’t generate immediate interest, it’s often because we have such a limited repertoire of meal ideas.  When spinach comes into season, for example, we eat it steamed with lemon juice every other day!  Actually, there are so many things that can be done with each vegetable besides piling it on the side of the plate.  So many flavor partners, produce companions, entrees to be brightened with their colors!  If you have trouble imagining spinach 15 different ways, then join one of our Whole Kitchen seasonal meal making classes and begin developing the valuable skill of weaving produce into meals every which way.

Enjoy a Non-Seasonal Food Budget  Seasonal eating is a choice we get to make.  Unlike our ancestors, we  don’t have to go hungry when the food landscape is barren, and no one is watching that you buy only seasonal at the grocery store.  Over the years, I’ve developed a “budget approach,” happily enjoying things like citrus, ginger, chocolate (of course), olive oil, fish sauce and so on, but being mindful to limit reliance on long-haul items to a dozen or so at a time.

There’s a way that good eating can be a natural, easeful part of our lives.  Can you believe that making and enjoying healthful meals can be just another part of life, no more or less issue-laden than going through our morning and evening routines, getting to work, finding time to meet with friends, getting to appointments and so on.

Ready to begin transitioning to this kind of eating?  Ready to make the joyful discovery that less is more:  less in the way of selections actually brings more interesting variety and nutritional depth to mealtimes.  Come join one of our classes and start the journey.