Trade-offs

So, in keeping with my new resolutions, I dutifully went to the grocery store last night - at which time I was faced with a whole new conundrum: what to buy? Since I'm not only trying to be healthy for me, but also healthy for the planet, how do I figure out the balance between what I like to eat, what's good for my body, and how, where and by whom it was produced?

The Massachusetts apples were easy. I stared at the Chilean grapes and the Spanish clementines for quite some time, torn between longing and an overwhelming sense of my huge carbon footprint. I decided instead to go for the California carrots, but I chose organic over
non-organic to try and make up for it. I decided against the Florida strawberries - honestly, they just looked weird, huge and prematurely ripened - but I did also select some fair trade bananas (origin unknown).

With my packaged goods, I was going more on health content - low sodium, low carbs, low fat - but I also tried to choose the nicely raised meat and good grainy bread, both from somewhere in New Jersey, I think. (Of course, these locations could just be of the distributors rather than the actual producers, but it's what I have to go on at point of sale.) When looking at dietary info, always check the serving size!! Some are more realistic than others ... I think one pack of sliced meat assumed that I was only going to put a single, very thin slice of turkey breast on my sandwich, where as the package I bought was more realistic (two slices of reasonable thickness).

Finally, I went with some of my staple organic cereals (Puffins), some regular cereal (Post Raisin Bran, which scored pretty well on the health count), and my organic, lactose-free, low-fat milk (thank you, thank you, Organic Valley Co-op in Wisconsin!!). I got some dime-bags of bulk spices to season my pork chops (oh, yeah, I forgot to list those), organic vanilla and almond, and Harvest's Pacific Almond Trail Mix for my protein/sweetness snack.

Oh, BTW - mad props to my grocery store, The Harvest Co-op in Central Square. They were bringing healthy food options to underserved urban neighborhoods long before Whole Foods came on this scene (it may seem hard to imagine, but Central Square and Jamaica Plain were once decidedly not trendy places to live), and they share the profits with their customers. Hooray for Harvest! I wish they'd open more branches.