By Chad Polito
Special Collaboration
March is Nutrition Month and the theme for this year is “key ingredients needed to change our food systems for a healthier tomorrow.” This theme resonates with BGC Dawson’s vision to encourage actions that can improve an individual’s health in addition to systemic changes that we can make to contribute to a brighter future.
In celebration of nutrition month, our friends at WhatYouEat.ca have provided a few concrete tips to try in order to hep us reduce the environmental footprint of our diet.
- Reduce food waste. Plan your meals and snacks and shop for the foods you need, use wilted vegetables in soups and sauces, store your food properly and freeze any extras. Save your leftovers for a future meal instead of throwing them away. When eating out, bring leftovers home. Avoiding food waste is actually one of the most important things you can do to reduce the environmental impact of your diet.
- Eat to satisfy hunger and support health. Eat the right amount of food to meet your needs—no more and no less. By consuming what we need (with occasional indulgences of course!), we use fewer agricultural resources, such as land, water and livestock, and ensure a better food supply globally.
- Buy fresh, local products. Favour local foods, grown and produced in Canada. And don’t hesitate to ask farmers questions about the practices they use to protect the environment! Not only will you help the environment, but you will also get fresher, more flavourful foods as a result while supporting the local economy.
- Choose a healthy and varied diet. A sustainable diet must, above all, meet your nutritional needs! Eat fewer nutrient poor, highly processed foods (such as cakes, sugary drinks and chips) as they contribute to your environmental footprint without providing nutritional benefits. Look for nutritious whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, milk, yogurt, cheese, fresh meats, poultry, and fish. Opt for a healthy balance of a variety of nutritious protein foods and make half your plate fruit and vegetables. Reducing the environmental impact of your diet starts with a healthy and balanced approach.
At BGC Dawson we are fortunate to have dietetic interns from McGill University to support our food and sustainability programs. This month, intern Dana Mounzer is offering free cooking sessions that will help you with a healthy sustainable diet!
Click here to register. You do not need to register for all of the sessions. Participants will be waitlisted if the session is full (5 to 7 participants/per session). We look forward to you joining us!
