You must take a moment to watch this video and tell me what you think — true or hype? Does it make your stomach turn like mine?

Honestly, it looks pretty darn authentic to me, but even if it’s not, it got me thinking about the quality of food we eat everyday and especially about eating canned food. It sure is convenient but for so many reasons, I limit my intake of canned foods to organic canned beans (no salt added), tomatoes and coconut milk. That’s pretty much it. Why so few items?

Let’s start with the fact that a huge portion of canned food would hardly fall in the clean eating category.  Over processed and often full of too much sodium (think canned soup), calories or unhealthy fats, it doesn’t usually provide us with the essential nutrients we need. In addition, most cans are lined with BPA (bisphenol A) – a chemical in plastic that’s been linked to increased risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease in animals.  Even in the healthiest of canned foods, you’re likely to find BPA.

Even if I wasn’t already focused on eating clean, whole foods, simply watching the video would be enough to make me pause and think about the choices I make.   Am I making the best decisions? What, if anything, do I need to change? Honestly, it’s hard to have confidence in our food supply these days and this sure doesn’t help.

This is one more reason to eat fresh, clean foods. With a focus on more vegetables, fruit and whole grains, it’s hard to go wrong.  That’s especially true if your food is locally grown and you know specifically where it’s coming from. But even if you eat frozen veggies, that’s a big step up from canned. Know what else? Even if I’m going to eat pasta, I’m sure not eating it from a can. How about a little extra time to cook some up with jarred sauce, at the very least? With some simple meal planning, any of us can reduce our dependence on questionable canned and processed foods and support a healthier lifestyle with more fresh, whole foods that boost our immune system and help stave off chronic diseases.

What will you do to minimize the impact of canned foods and eat more fresh, clean eating, whole foods?

See the chart to your left? We can all make a difference by choosing to buy organic produce that’s pesticide free. Why? It’s obviously healthier for us and it’s a whole lot gentler on the environment.  As you probably already know, pesticides are damaging to the soil and surrounding ecosystems not to mention the toxins they introduce in our bodies.

This handy guide gives you a road map for the best and worst produce when it comes to pesticides. For example, the average apple is sprayed with 2-3 different kinds of pesticides so I always make it a habit to buy organic apples. Same for the other items on the list on the left hand side that we use regularly — celery, lettuce and spinach.

The good news for our pocketbooks, however,  is that everything doesn’t have to be organic. There’s always a way to balance our health and wallet and the list on the right shows you the foods low in pesticides. So if you can’t buy organic, these are a safe bet to be healthier choices. And if you have a local farmers’ market or farm stand, it’s a good bet that the produce you’ll find is pesticide free.

Are you aware of what foods have the most pesticides? Can you see how taking a few simple actions using the chart above can help support the environment in a simple way as well as your health? What are your thoughts and how does this inspire you into action?

And you can imagine as the super-duper healthy person I am, I’ve even a lot of greens over the years.

Perry has an organic farm just outside of New Haven, Connecticut where he grows an amazing variety of beautiful, healthy greens in nutrient-rich soil. He picks them and immediately brings them to the market — mesclun, arugula, watercress, basil, Swiss chard, just to name a few – where they’re bursting with essential vitamins and minerals that will energize you for hours.

But here’s the thing – you know the bagged salad greens in the grocery store? I’d like you to chew on something: the nutritional value in those bagged greens is minimal.  Usually they’ve been picked weeks before they end up on your dinner table.  You can probably imagine that it takes a while for them to go from a farm to a processing plant, to being packaged for shipment, transported and then placed in your local produce department. All the while, they’re losing vital nutrients.

Needless to say, eating bagged greens is better than eating junk food, but I encourage you to think about where you might be able to find locally grown greens or the healthiest ones in the store that are available.

That may sound like an unreasonable request in this unstable economy where prices are high and we have less to spend.

But here’s my thinking: I make conscious choices on what I pay more for.  Some produce I always buy organic, like apples, and other things I don’t. And since greens are some of the healthiest things we can eat (did you know eating kale is a great way to prevent cancer), it’s worth the extra expense to get the freshest greens I can find.  It simply means I cut back in other ways that generally are less healthy anyway (like all the snacks my husband would love if I brought home – how about popping popcorn at home instead of eating Doritos – so much cheaper and healthier).  

But try this on for size. I bet you can make up for the cost of the healthier, more expensive items with a simple dose of meal planning and a shift in your mindset.  If we regularly walk down store aisles with no plan in mind, we’ll spend more. We’re often set in our ways about what we make and prepare, you know, creatures of habit. But you’ll be amazed how you can afford locally grown, super healthy greens, with some simple shifts in other, often less healthy things, we tend to buy.

What about you, what are you willing to pay more for and what could you give up that’s not so healthy anyway?

Remember when you were little and having a summer meal with family and friends that was so fun and delicious that it still evokes memories? I still think about summer evenings growing up in New Jersey when we’d have a cookout with my very best friend Alyson (still my best friend to this day, since we were 3!). We’d stuff ourselves silly on hot dogs and hamburgers and then when my dad would drive her home, we’d always stop at Baskin Robbins and get our favorite ice cream (pink bubble gum for her, chocolate chip mint for me). To this day, I still have such fond memories of these summer evenings.

These days I’m still making memories but you can bet they’re of a healthier variety! Just recently, we had one of my favorite summertime meals, but it wasn’t full of fat and calories (well okay, there were some) but the key here is that it contained healthy, fresh, locally grown food. Here’s what we had that was so good:

• Roasted tomatoes with shrimp and feta cheese (this is a favorite recipe I came across several years ago in Real Simple magazine. Click here to take a look)
• Just picked, locally grown corn on the cob bought at the farmers’ market
• Organic mesclun salad greens, from a local farm, freshly picked

I loved it because we used the freshest, healthiest ingredients including some beautiful, perfectly ripe native tomatoes. I loved it because it was simple to make, absolutely delicious and I enjoyed it with great company. And I loved that my mom and husband enjoyed it as much as I did.

What’s your favorite summertime meal? What did you love growing up and what do you enjoy now? And what do you do to give it a healthy spin?

I’ve never thought of myself as someone with much of a green thumb, but that’s something that’s changing (check it out, I’m watering my collard greens and kale!). And this year I’m growing some beautiful produce that my husband and I can enjoy. Truth be told, what’s better than that? I’m eating locally grown produce that’s healthy, in-season and delicious which totally supports my notion of optimal health and what I most believe in. And as you know, eating the healthiest of foods helps prevent disease, energizes us and nourishes us with nutrients that can be lacking in produce that’s been sitting around for awhile.

Last summer, I made my first attempt at gardening. I live in a condo and there’s really no backyard to plant a big garden, but there is a place to put pots out. I tried tomatoes, planted them too late in the season and they didn’t do well. But this year, I’ve been totally inspired. I went to a seedling sale in late May at my favorite place, Common Ground, an environmental high school in New Haven where I’m on the board (more on that later). I planted kale, collards and sun gold tomatoes. The kale and collards are growing by leaps and bounds. I was away for a week, came home and couldn’t believe how lots of sun and plentiful amounts of water made a difference.

I love the concept of growing my own food for several reasons. Here are just a few of the benefits you can reap:

- Saving money. Although it takes time to grow and harvest, growing your own food can save you lots of money on produce, especially when you have room for a larger garden

- Eating healthier. What’s better than knowing that you’ve grown your food without pesticides and other harmful chemicals? Growning your own promotes healthy eating.

- Eating seasonally. Nature intended us to eat according to what was in season, not have foods shipped from around the world to eat whenever we feel like it

- Less stress on the environment. Think no packaging or transporation costs. It supports the environment and it’s simple way to add value.

- Reducing your stress levels.  Playing in the dirt is just plain fun! I loved planting my seedlings and now tending to my growing plants. It’s relaxing and rewarding, and most of us don’t connect enough with nature.

- Building community. Go outside to water and what do I find? My neighbors who are tending to their plants too. It’s a great way to connect with my neighbors and build community.

Bottom line: Growing my own food, in my own small way, is totally empowering! It supports my health and makes me feel good on numerous levels.

What’s your experience like doing this? I’d love to hear about your forays into growing your own food.

Check out the  link for more information about the event which is scheduled for Friday, November 30 from 6-10 pm. Unfortunately, I’m not able to go, but I’m sure going to check it out some other time. And if you happen to go, let us know what you think.