Many people have an issue with wasting food, but I have noticed those issues are not always prioritized well because some would rather make colossal efforts to save cake and foods with cream/sugar/salt in them, but will let vegetables and fruits go bad.
Other habits that will sometimes occur:
- Buying of new fruits and vegetables and forgetting to finish off the older ones
- Over-buying certain produce because you don’t know if there is any left in the house, but prefer not to take the time to go home first and check
- Making the colossal effort to save cake and other foods with cream/sugar/salt but eventually forgetting they exist too, especially if they are in the freezer
All of these things are adding to the ‘wasting of food’ that we have issues with.
***It’s not just about what is on your plate in the moment.***
When we waste food, buy unhealthy foods and drinks, or contribute our attention and funds to any sort of business that probably doesn’t serve much positive purpose, we support the wasting of energy and life, and degradation of the environment.
Construction of the very business’ building wipes out land, animal life and their homes, and other parts of the ecosystem, which is important for human survival. Business operations continues the over-consumption, wasting and pollution – LAND (soil, minerals, interrupted water cycle due to less ground surface area for absorption), WATER (water fountains, bathrooms, food production, cleaning), AIR (A/C, people driving to work for this business increases the amount of diesel fumes in the air, chemical-based cleaning supplies), and HUMAN ENERGY (many people are overworked by their jobs – leading to stress, adrenal fatigue, hormonal and other health conditions – and a significant amount would rather put their creativity and skills toward something else) to name a few.
A few ways to avoid wasting food:
- Take a visual or written inventory once per week of what you have before buying anything else (some refrigerators now allow you to take a picture from your phone while at work so that you can see what’s inside)
- If you know you’re not going to eat the produce before it goes bad, you can: freeze it, cook it and freeze it, or give it to someone else
- Buy less. Sometimes we have good intentions and buy a plethora of produce, only to eat half of it. This is not to encourage eating of fast/processed foods, but to be realistic about where you currently are in your progress toward healthy meal preparation. When you don’t have the time to prepare your own meals, make the effort to eat healthy items from the menu of wherever you choose to go. Feel free to switch and combine things from different menu items. I do this all the time! In America, it is often doable. I cannot speak for other countries.
- Get up earlier, stay up later, cut foods in advance, or somehow prioritize your week differently to make the time to prepare meals.
- Stop procrastinating on trying new recipes. Go for it! It will improve and get easier over time, but you must start.
All this to say, please eat the healthy foods before they go bad. The fact that they do go bad more quickly than fast food and processed foods is a sign, in this case, of better quality.
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