Listen to “Discover a Conscious Approach to Nutrition”.
Achieving health and wellness embodies a holistic state where mental, physical and emotional conditions are in sync. Accordingly, a holistic approach to nutrition involves the consideration of various factors when it comes to food choices.
Mindfulness is usually associated with meditation and stress relief, but it can also be a powerful tool when choosing what we eat, how we’re eating and how our choices affect our health and the health of our environment.
Let’s take a closer look at how we can apply a conscious approach to nutrition in everyday life:
Don’t overeat
Overeating is a common problem that can pose long-term health risks. Whether you’re at home or out and about, endless tasty food options and the easy availability of quick snacks make it easy to overeat.
While occasional overeating most likely won’t affect long-term health, chronic overeating leads to obesity. Many people eat for reasons other than hunger, such as being stressed, tired, or sad. A lot of people also overeat because of certain habits, such as eating while distracted or eating too quickly.
Try making a list of things that trigger overeating and then coming up with ways to avoid or address them.
Don’t waste food
Between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of this wasted food exceeds $1 trillion.
Food waste is really, really bad for the environment! It takes a landmass larger than China, that has been deforested, species driven to extinction, indigenous populations moved and soil degraded, just to grow the amount of food we waste each year.
In addition, the production of waste foods accounts for 25% of all fresh-water consumption globally. Meanwhile, 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. That is 1 in 9 people on the planet who are starving or malnourished.
Food wastage happens for two main reasons:
- We buy too much.
- We don’t use it in time.
We need to treat food like the valuable good that it is.
Choose wisely
Almost half of the food we eat has been significantly altered from its original state. With every addition of salt, sugar, fat, additives, preservatives or artificial colours, we get further away from the natural organic nutrients we need.
To stay healthy and live longer, we need to eat live food that is full of energy. Live foods will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function optimally.
The healthiest eating plan is mind-blowingly simple. It involves consuming more vegetables, fruits, and protein while consuming fewer processed carbohydrates.
Processed foods are designed to extend the shelf-life, not human life!
Eat less meat
Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods sourced primarily from plants. This includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans. You don’t need to become a vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy. Rather, you should proportionately choose more of your foods from plant sources.
Eating a nutritious plant-based diet is not only good for your health, it’s also good for the planet and can reduce an individual’s carbon footprint by up to 73%!
Buy Local
Buying locally-grown produce is a great way to eat with the seasons. Logically, the closer your food has been grown to the place you live, the less time it has spent in transit on boats, planes or lorries, and the more nutrients and vitamins it is likely to have retained since being picked.
Locally sourced foods don’t have to travel nearly as far, so the associated fuel emissions and transportation costs are minimal.
If you source local produce, not only will you get better tasting foods, you’ll also help out both your community and the planet.
