The Importance of Eating Local for Good Health

When you have a beautiful life ahead of you, taking good care of your body, mind and soul becomes extremely important. But with the fast paced life we all lead and with the advent of technology, our quality of life has gone through a drastic metamorphosis. We eat a lot of packaged foods on a daily basis. When these processed foods go in our system, they make way for a lot of underlying issues. The only way to solve this issue is to eat fresh, local food. 

It is important to know why eating local food is good for our health. Let’s start talking, shall we? 

So first let us talk about what we mean by local food. It simply means to eat something that has been cultivated in your region naturally. 

So let us now talk about the importance of eating local for good health: 

1. Tapping in on the freshness and quality: 

The first and foremost reason for eating local is making the most of its freshness. All fruits and vegetables, pulses and grains come with an expiry date. The quality of the item also depends on the amount of time it takes to reach your house. The fresher the item, the better it is to consume and packs a mean punch of nutrients. The quality also remains intact as you consume it right out of the farms. 

1. Not brimming with preservatives:

It is a known fact that if you want to increase the longevity of the food items then the use of preservatives is inevitable. But consuming a lot of preservatives isn’t good for our body. These chemicals are the cause of a lot of cancers as they aren’t supposed to be in our body and if consumed for a longer period of time, it will adversely affect different parts of our body. 

1. Saving the cost by eliminating the middleman - transport:

What has happened due to the advent of technology is that all these indigenous food items get cultivated in different regions and transported to different cities as per their need. For example: avocados are in vogue these days and people can’t get enough of this fruit. But the amount of money spent on transporting this to different parts of the world is beyond comparison. Which is why, when you buy one avocado in India that has been grown in Mexico, you get it for Rs 400-500 each. This also makes way for a lot of middlemen who are making a lot of money while the farmers are making peanuts for the same. 

1. Seasonal food and variety:

If you eat locally, you tend to eat only those fruits and vegetables that are seasonal as they are easily available at that point of time. A lot of excerpts in Ayurveda stress on the consumption of seasonal fruits and vegetables as these items are in sync with nature and your body requires these items to deal with the said seasons every year. Different fruits and vegetables peak and grow naturally in different seasons and that also gives us a chance to try out different food items in every season. 

1. Supporting the local farmers:

When you buy fresh produce locally, you eliminate the involvement of a middleman and your farmers get the appropriate value of their hard work. This way, they keep doing what is best for all of us. You support their employment and they give you the best products out there. You also get to know how the produce has been grown and this way avoid the unwanted consumption of pesticides and other chemicals. 

1. Good for the environment:

The practice of buying local produce leaves very little carbon footprint and that helps the environment immensely. The example is the cultivation of avocados. Because Mexico is the biggest producer of the same, a lot of their land gets utilised in cultivating these fruits all year round and that leaves a huge carbon footprint. The people who are making money due to this phenomenon don’t care much about the environment. But if we eat locally produced food then this problem gets solved to an extent and the earth gets a chance to recuperate when the crops and veggies change every season. 

Conclusion:

The benefits of eating locally grown food are substantial. This way, we keep healthy, eat good food and save the planet so that the future generations can have a chance of experiencing a somewhat sustainable life.