Cleaning and greening through whole foods

I hope you, Greener Nashville readers, all had a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday.   I sure did.  I spent some great time with family and hometown friends, got in some good hiking, and ate heartily.  Maybe a little too heartily.  I honestly felt a little gross physically and felt it was time to clean up my diet.  So I brought back my own version of a 'cleanse diet'.  

The rules are simple: the only foods allowed must come from the produce section of the store.  No packaged foods, no meats, no dairy, and hardest of all...no coffee.  No alcohol, no desserts (other than raw fruit), and no potato chips.  Just vegetables and fruits.  (Note: I did allow myself organic tea, brown rice, and sea salt...to liven up the veggies).

I took this on with my girlfriend starting last Monday morning and kept it through until Friday night.  We headed over to Whole Foods in Green Hills and loaded up on, well, whole foods, straight from the earth.  Grapes, oranges, bananas, apples, and berries were rotated around in various assortments for breakfast.  Carrots, celery, tomatoes, red potatoes, and brown potatoes for lunch.  Stews and soups made of boiled and roasted beets, squashes, onions, peppers, and brown rice were for dinner.

Honestly, it wasn't that hard.  It was just five days.  But I can tell you I felt better and I felt cleaner.  I had more energy during the day.  I slept better during the night.  I was left wondering "why can't I do this more often?"  I know that in the long run I need the proteins from nuts, beans and sometimes meats but why couldn't I make this a daily habit for breakfast and lunch?

Plus, I felt really good about eating only local and regional produce from nearby farmers.  This is good for the regional economy and also is good from a carbon footprint standpoint.  Local produce doesn't require the long-distance transportation (carbon impact) that packaged foods do.  Local produce doesn't require the packaging (carbon impact) that meats, dairy, and other packaged foods require.  Local produce doesn't require the high energy input (carbon impact) that meats, dairy and other packaged foods require.

To learn more about local and regional foods available at Whole Foods, check out this site: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/locally-grown/south.php

Jeff

jeff@jgowdyconsulting.com