A recent study presented in the National Geographic magazine finds that fruits and vegetables are no longer as nurturing as they once were.
This should alarm all of us. Today’s consumers have come to rely on going to the supermarket or “market” – for the health-conscious foodies among us – to buy nutritious fruit and veggies. Stores make them look good. You rely on the fact that you will pick up nurturing foods, food that is high in nutrient value. This study makes one rethink. Is this belief misplaced?
Nutrient Decline – Lower Nurturing of our Bodies
Nutrient decline “is going to leave our bodies with fewer of the components they need to mount defenses against chronic diseases—it’s going to undercut the value of food as preventive medicine,”
David R. Montgomery, a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington in Seattle and co-author with Anne Biklé of What Your Food Ate.
Doctors always recommend eating a good amount of fruits and vegetables to keep our bodies healthy. Has a lower quality of food reached a point where we need to take in more vitamin supplements to get the same nutritional value?
How about this alternative: It’s time to once again grow our own vegetables. A lot of people, especially young people are returning to growing their own food.
Is Growing your Food For You?
How? Where? To get answers – check out various approaches with the gardening experts on Smart Healthy Green Living (SHG Living). CaliKim’s many shows offer a wide range of approaches to vegetable gardening. Her shows present raised bed gardening, container gardening, hanging baskets, and more.
Ashley Renne’s sustainable lifestyle solutions teach how to propagate onions, for example, on the kitchen counter. Going Green has a whole show entitled “Sustainable Food”. Green Dreams’ Jim Kovaleski takes things to the ultimate level: An outright sustainable farm replacing the suburban lawns and flower gardens.
And while you contemplate gardening, be sure to shift into sustainable, chemically-free gardening right from the start. It stands to reason that mixing a whole bunch of chemicals into your food will not result in nurturing food for the body. These experts share their tips and tricks to make things easy. Natural gardening techniques are the only way to get to truly nurturing foods for our bodies.
These folks come from different walks of life. They have different approaches. They found gardening styles that fit their lives. For them, gardening itself is yet another nurturing experience.
Rediscovering Nurturing Foods
Perhaps we have known all along that homegrown foods are indeed so much better for our bodies.
For example: Have you had the experience of someone bringing you fresh, garden-grown tomatoes from their garden? The deep red color and the smell of a “real” tomato are already strong hints of higher quality and nutrient value. Freshly picked lettuce, lemons from your lemon tree, or mangos picked from a mango tree all taste so much better than the produce one finds in even “fine” markets. You intuitively know these “real” fruits and vegetables are nurturing to your bodies.
While it’s shocking to see a study that points out the reduction of nutritional value in today’s food, it really shouldn’t be. Do your own A-B comparisons of fruits and veggies. Then watch the many gardening shows on SHG Living and plum what kind of veggie gardener you might want to become.
Photo by Immo Wegmann