The way we eat affects our lives. This includes our health, our bank balance, and the environment. Since the way we eat has such a large influence it only makes sense to try to make conscious food selections.
Although it is often overwhelming to try to decide what and how to eat in this modern age due to the countless advertisements trying to convince us that a particular dietary or lifestyle regime will make our lives better, the simplest method for balancing physical and monetary needs is eating seasonally and making healthy decisions regarding the way we eat, according to Amy Bondar, a nutritional therapist based in Calgary.
Bondar said seasonal eating is “one of the wisest ways to align our bodies with the wisdom of Mother Nature. Every season Mother Nature gives us foods [that] keep our bodies in balance.”
Health benefits
Many health benefits can be obtained by keeping our bodies in a state of balance through seasonal eating, according to Bondar.
Bondar said it is important because it prevents illnesses, such as common colds and flus, that occur often during seasonal changes, especially those between summer and fall, and winter and spring.
“For example, in the summer, the foods we are meant to be eating help to keep the body cool,” Bondar said.
“We are more prone to sunburn, are more irritable, more agitated, and have a greater chance of developing rashes if we eat foods that keep the body heated.”
Bondar explained that foods with hydrating properties and with sweet, bitter, and stringent tastes are best at keeping the body cool, which makes them the most nutritious choices during the summer.
According to Ashley Arbour, a registered Ottawa nutritionist, “Foods, [which] are at their peak of freshness, offer higher nutritional value than those picked out of season.”
“Eating seasonally provides a variety of different fruits and vegetables that you may not have picked otherwise. You will be providing your body with a variety of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that will range from season to season,” she explained via email.
Win-win
When consumers buy and eat seasonal foods, both the consumers themselves and their local economy benefit.
Bondar said seasonal foods will be less expensive than out of season foods because they travel less distance to get to where they are sold, making the cost of transportation, and thus the overall prices of these foods, cheaper.
According to Arbour, “when you support local farmers you are directly supporting your economy.”
“Seasonal foods are priced much more economically than out of season foods, so a smart consumer should always be eating seasonally, checking flyers, and scoping out farmers’ markets in their area.”
In addition to benefitting consumers’ health, wallets, and local economies, seasonal eating is good for the environment.
“When we import foods from other countries, the travel itself affects our environment. Our foods are travelling thousands of miles before they get to [the] grocery store,” Arbour explained.
When we eat seasonally we are reducing the amount of fuel we use to transport our food, which reduces pollution.
Accessibility
There are even initiatives at Carleton to make seasonal eating more accessible, such as the Graduate Students’ Association’s (GSA) development of a campus community garden, according to Michael Bueckert, the associations vice-president (academic).
“The Kitigànensag GSA Carleton community garden would provide an opportunity for students to garden who otherwise wouldn’t be able to, which in turn would provide them with access to local, affordable and nutritious food.”
“The ability to grow our own food is an important aspect of establishing food security in our community,” Bueckert said via email.
Other locally grown and environmentally sustainable food can be purchased at farmers’ markets. Farmers “maintain the land and preserve the Greenbelt, rather than developing the land,” explained Tara Simpson, the Ottawa Farmers’ Market Association’s manager of communications and events.
Bondar agreed, and recommended visiting local farmers’ markets and health food stores to figure out which foods are in season in a particular area.
“It is hard to notice [which foods are in season] in the big grocery stores, where you can get any foods all year long,” she said.
Producer-run farmers’ markets, like the Ottawa Farmers’ Market, are the best places to buy local and seasonal foods in Ottawa, according to Simpson.
“We have standards for our market,î she explained. ìWith a few exceptions, all of our vendors come within 100 kilometres of Ottawa, so you know you are getting local.
The Ottawa Farmers’ Market Association has two satellite markets; one in Westboro that runs until the end of October on Saturdays, and a small market place at Centrum Plaza in Orleans on Friday afternoons, Simpson said.
Another option for a person hoping to buy locally and seasonally is taking part in community supported agriculture, or CSA. This is where farmers offer a subscription to their produce at beginning of the season, and consumers can get weekly or biweekly seasonal food baskets from that farmer, according to Simpson.
“The majority of our producers would do that. The newer, smaller farms, and many of the organic farms use community supported agriculture to support their businesses,” she said.
Bondar added that it is difficult to buy seasonally and locally in places like Canada, where there are not many local foods available during the long and harsh winter season.
“You have to do the best you can by trying to buy foods from places that are as close to Canada as possible. For example, eating foods from Florida, as opposed to eating foods from New Zealand,” she explained.
“It is okay to have a 70 to 80 per cent seasonal diet and fill in the rest with other stuff,” Bondar added. “It is not going to be 100 per cent, especially where we live.”
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