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A majority of people aren’t always able to eat a balanced diet. This could either be due to a busy lifestyle or a lack of access to nutritious food. But the thing is, most people have the misconception that eating healthy has to be expensive when it is not always the case. One way to eat healthily is to go local. That is, eating locally sourced food from your farmer’s market. When you go local, you’ll be surprised at some of their benefits. Read on to find out more.
Locally Sourced Food Is Fresher
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Buying food locally means the ingredients – whether it be fruits and vegetables get to be harvested at its peak, ripened stage. In some cases, like dairy or meat items, animals are freshly butchered and the eggs and milk recently collected. It is a huge contrast to supermarket goods in which the product is being prematurely harvested or the frozen meat that has probably been sitting for quite some time now to make way for longer shelf life.
As a result, you get better-tasting ingredients and better-tasting food. Think juicy, succulent heirloom tomatoes for a refreshing salad or a nice, crisp batch of green beans instead of making do with canned ones at the grocery store. Getting locally sourced food also means it will come from a nearby location, one that’s in your area. It means the produce was probably picked just yesterday or in some cases, the same day. On the off chance you don’t have the means to your local farmers market, you could get access to locally sourced ingredients via a delivery app. That way, you could still get to enjoy local produce without having to strain yourself.
Promotes Mindful Eating
Most of the time, people neglect to pay careful attention to their diet. Often, people have poor diets, as a result of consuming calorie-dense food with low nutritional value like fast food or processed food like microwaveable meals. These foods tend to contain a lot of preservatives as well as saturated fats and added sugars. Prolongedly eating them could lead to obesity and heart disease in the long run. The good news is, locally sourced foods could help promote healthier eating habits.
Eating locally sourced ingredients involves a lot of fruits and vegetables and they are very nutrient-dense seeing as they have been minimally processed. So, if you want to live a healthier lifestyle, then go local. It also helps if you engage in some type of activity. It doesn’t have to be high-impact exercises, you could even just go walking, running, or dancing. The goal is to get your body moving. This way, you would aim towards holistic weight loss to keep yourself healthy and reduce the risk of developing those diseases. Also, eating local food encourages you to get creative with recipes, so this is a great way to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet.
Higher Nutritional Value
Your diet plays a large part in keeping your body healthy. The importance of getting the right nutrients is overlooked because people are intimidated and think they need super fancy ingredients. In fact, you can eat healthily even with locally sourced food. Eating or cooking with local ingredients means it retains a majority of its nutritional value because it spends less time in transit from the farm to your table than imported ones.
This is because some fruits and vegetables’ quality tend to deteriorate while in transit or in storage in supermarkets. So you won’t be able to fully reap its benefits. If you want to make the most out of your money, then local produce is surely worth it. Plus, you are helping out your local economy because you are directly dealing with farmers, so you get to help with their livelihood.
You Know What You’re Eating
Unlike processed food, it is easy to see what goes on into your meal when you cook it yourself. The same goes for local food. You could ask farmers about their farming practices as well as how the food was sourced. You could even ask them for tips on how to best prepare a certain ingredient. Locally sourced food is also minimally processed and handled because it gets picked or harvested and then it is headed straight to the farmers market. Therefore it has a lower chance of being contaminated by chemicals, which means you are getting more of the good stuff. This is as loyal to the definition of farm to table as you could get.
Prevent Onset of Diseases
Food as a medicine is all the rage these days as eating locally sourced food can replace the preservatives in your diet brought about by processed foods. You could say goodbye to the high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and say hello to proper nutrition. Eating a diet abundant in fruits and vegetables also helps prevent a myriad of diseases like elevated cholesterol levels, stroke, and heart disease. Prevention is worth a pound of cure for a reason, so if you want to prevent the onset of diseases, then it is worth it to consume locally sourced food.
Conclusion
If you want to eat healthier, locally sourced food does wonders to your diet. You get to have your pick of fresh fruits and vegetables that are harvested at their prime and minimally processed, which ensures you get to fully absorb their nutritional value. And you get to learn new ways to cook with them, which can broaden your diet to more nutrient-dense food instead of relying on processed ones. They say health is wealth, so investing in your health by eating nutritious, locally sourced ingredients.
