Diversify. The vast majority of the food we eat—75 percent—
comes from a skimpy twelve types of plants and five species
of animals. What a missed opportunity! By eating with the
seasons or simply branching out from your go-to ingredients,
you experience more types of flavors, nutrients, textures, and
pairings with other foods over the course of the year. Doing
so can also greatly expand your cooking, as different types of
foods will lend themselves to different dishes. Both the bet-
ter flavor and the thrill of discovery create a positive feedback
loop for you and your family: Tried an interesting new vegeta-
ble (Romanesco cauliflower! Celery root! Tomatillo!) ➔ Tasted
better than expected ➔ Likely to eat it again. And this, in turn,
can go a long way toward a lifelong habit of reaching those five
servings a day.
Eat regionally. Regional eating includes focusing on produce from
as close as your backyard to as far as the same general cli-
mate as your home state—the Pacific Northwest, for example.
Transportation makes up a mere 11 percent of the greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions of food production, so honoring the spirit
of “locally sourced” need not mean sticking to items from
within a certain radius of your home. A regional approach is
also a more realistic and actionable way of eating than strict
locavorism. Here’s what I mean:
It expands your options while still giving you connection
to place. This allows you to use your grocery dollars to
support surrounding economies—from farmers to farm-
workers, distributors to processors.
Again, as with seasonal produce, the flavor will likely be
higher. Regionally sourced produce often arrives to you
fresher. And, with long-term storage and shipping removed
from the equation, fruits and vegetables from nearby are
given the chance to fully ripen in the field.20 how to be a Conscious Eater