A primary goal for any Healthy Home Economist is to produce nutritious, home cooked meals for her family. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, “nutritious” is a word that is bandied about with such abandon these days in the media that the public is almost completely fooled about what “nutritious” truly means.
Let me define nutritious in very easy to understand terms. Nutritious = Local. If you want food that is nutrient dense, it pretty much has to be locally produced. Food that is shipped halfway across the world or continent (even if it has that sexy “organic” label) is not going to be nearly as nutritious as food that is produced on a small, family farm that you drive to yourself and buy directly from the farmer who produced it. Yes, even if that local food is not organic! Bypassing food distribution channels is essential to the procurement of the most nutritious, whole foods you can find. It is NOT in buying “organic”. What does buying “organic” even mean anyway?
The truth is that “Organic” has lost most of its meaning ever since the USDA got involved a few years back. Now you can buy processed frozen dinners that are labeled “organic”. Are these dinners nutritious? Not a chance! Organic processed food is basically the same as supermarket junk food less the pesticides and a few chemicals. They aren’t nourishing. Don’t be fooled by the “organic” marketing propaganda. While there is certainly nothing wrong with seeking organic foods to limit pesticide and antibiotic exposure, it is not necessarily going to find you the most nutritious foods. And guess what? Nutrient dense foods are more critical to your health than toxin free foods! A body that is fed nutrient dense foods can easily handle/excrete the toxin load that this modern world throws at it in the majority of cases (unless you are chronically ill to begin with). But, a person that is not consuming nutrient dense foods will fall apart anyway even if the foods he/she does consume are completely pure and toxin free! I hope you can understand the conundrum I just described. It is critical to your success as a Healthy Home Economist.
Now that I have defined that LOCAL is the definition of truly nutritious food, I must urgently inform you that your free and unfettered procurement of this type of food is under attack by our state and federal goverments. The profits of the big food companies are not going to go down without a fight, and the local food movement is seriously beginning to threaten corporate deep pockets. There is a bill in Congress right now that, if passed, will forever change the face of your ability to buy local whole foods for your family. This bill simply must be defeated.
Please show your support for the Local Food Movement by clicking on this link and signing the petition to defeat HR 2749. Please do this NOW! There is no time to spare.
First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. – Ghandi
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
First, thank you for providing education to people who are interested in learning about true nutrition and I hope you don’t mind my questions, as I am truly eager to learn.
This article highlights local food as being the most nutritious. I’m confused as to why local is more nutritious over something that is brought from far away. Like bananas. In my zone (5) you cannot locally grow bananas, as well as many other crops. Does this mean we should only eat what is grown and harvested locally? What makes something less nutritious? Is it the way it’s grown?
Thank you
I just bought fuji apples labeled organic, however they did not brown and when i quartered them for my juicer, there were no seeds, not even one. I don’t pay for organic to eat food from a lab. Yuck. I am so glad I have a farmer I trust, will have to make more effort to get out to the farm. Thank you for a great article Ms. Susan
They’re not necessarily lab grown, but they are a hybrid variety, which often have few if any noticeable seeds. Not even sure what an heirloom apple would look or taste like. More than likely they’re quite small and extremely tart, unlike the large, sweet Fuji, admittedly one of my favorites.