2020 Earth Day Celebration Ways You Can Help – Part 1

Posted by Michelle Hanson on April 9, 2020

 April 22 is Earth Day this year. Given our ever changing climate, it is a good time to be aware of and practice ways that we can help protect the earth’s resources we depend upon daily to survive. Our daily practices will make a difference in our overall health as well.

Outlined here are ways in which we can help protect the world we live.

 

Reduce your carbon footprint

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that are generated by our actions. Greenhouse gases increase the rise in global temperatures that then affect the change in climate. Lowering individual carbon footprints (from the current U.S. average of 16 tons per person/year to 2 tons by 2050) will require making many small changes in our actions.

Here at Fresh & Natural we pride ourselves on delivering organic and natural food choices to your table from local growers and ranchers, helping to reduce the overall carbon footprint due in the the transport of goods to the store for our customers. Therefore, you can purchase goods that are produced closer to the home to do your part.

Reusable Bags

If you think you might be using too much plastic, there’s a good chance much of it is from your weekly trip to the grocery store. If you are looking to make a change, reusable bags are an easy solution. Make a habit of keeping canvas and/or mesh tote bags in your car at all times for any type of shopping.

At Fresh & Natural you will receive a 10 cent credit for every reusable bag use you use. Every little bit helps.

Reusable Water Bottles

Here’s another way to reduce the use of plastic, use your own reusable water bottle. It is a good healthy practice to drink water throughout the day, why not use your own reusable container and help the environment as well?

At Fresh & Natural you can refill your own water jug with our reverse osmosis bulk water station. Or purchase your first water jug from us and then reuse it to refill when needed.

Start A Garden

Another way to help the environment and to beautify your home is to start a garden. Gardens can help reduce your carbon footprint, pollution, erosion and energy costs. This does not mean it has to be a big outdoor garden, it can be as simple as a container or herb garden for your window sill.

Fresh & Natural offers seeds, seedlings, and herbs for each growing season as well as some indoor plants to enjoy in the non-growing season.

Get Cooking

Increasing your at home cooking means less take-out meals which in turn decreases eating supplies such as: take out containers, plastic utensils, bags, straws, and napkins. If you do choose to eat out, bring in your own container to store your leftover food. Keep clean containers and utensils in your car, it will make a big difference.

Eat Less Meats, More Produce

Recent studies have shown that eating less meat results in a 33% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and eating vegan results in a 53% reduction. If you are interested in reducing your overall meat consumption, what does that look like? Let’s take a look at what the daily protein requirements are:

Assuming a 2,000 calorie daily intake for each:

Adult Female: needs 46 gms of protein per day

Adult Male: needs 56 gms of protein per day

  • There are 7 grams of protein in every ounce of meat or slice of cheese (the size of a pre-wrapped American cheese slice). A cooked chicken breast is about 4 ounces of meat, thus 28 gms of protein.
  • Keep in mind, when you cook meat, you lose 25% of the weight to shrinkage. Thus, starting with 4 ounces of raw hamburger results in a 3 ounce hamburger, 21 grams of protein.
  • A cooked 1/4 pound burger is 4 ounces (5 ozs. raw) thus 4 X 7gms per ounce = 28 grams. For a cooked 1/3 pound burger at 5 ounces (7.25 ozs. raw) = 5 X 7 gms per ounce = 35 gms protein.
  • Keep in mind that grain servings also have protein in them as well as nuts, eggs and dairy. A slice of toast or a half cup of pasta has about 2 grams protein; nuts (2-3 T) varies from 5-7 gms protein; an egg 5-7 gms protein depending on size; milk and yogurt varies between 7-10 grams depending upon the type and size.

Point being, an adult female could easily obtain her protein needs with a 3 ounce portion of meat twice a day and get the additional protein needed from other non-meat sources to meet or exceed her daily protein requirements.

An adult male could have two 4 ounce meat portions a day, plus all of the protein of other non-meat sources and easily meet or exceed his daily protein requirement.

In summary, this leaves much room to decrease your protein intake (if currently exceeding what is recommended above) and increase your intake of fresh produce to add much needed vitamins and minerals.

 

Fresh & Natural is currently providing product descriptions, handling tips and recipes for many of the fresh and unique vegetables we offer that you may not be as familiar with.

You will always find locally grown fruits and vegetables without synthetic pesticides or added artificial preservatives to please your palette here at Fresh & Natural.

Any small part you can do will make this world a better place to live in.

Author: Michelle Hanson

Michelle Hanson, MA, RD, LD is Fresh & Natural Food’s Registered Dietitian. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics with a minor in Community Health from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. She is a registered dietitian and current member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Michelle has been a nutrition consultant for numerous years as well as a nutrition research director at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Michelle is passionate about food and nutrition and believes in helping people find simple, realistic ways to make healthy eating a part of their everyday lifestyle.
If you are interested in meeting Michelle or have questions for her, you can email her at: michelle@fnfoods.com. She will look forward to meeting you!