Healthy Earth, Healthy Me: My Twelve Top Tips

• Buy local as much as possible... go to markets, check the label. Try not to buy products that claim "local and imported" or "imported" ingredients. This isn't always possible, for example dates, which are a terrific dried fruit because of no preservatives and a great sugar substitute are a product of Turkey, I buy them anyway and try to look for "packaged in Australia".

• Buy organic where possible, and if not organic, biodynamic. Again, not always possible, and there is a real ethical dilemma about non-organic and local vs organic and imported. Personally, I choose local.

• Buy products with little or no packaging. Hmmm... very very hard to do!!! Markets are great for this, and always better to buy bulk as it immediately reduces packaging.

• Don't buy products you can make yourself. Bread, yoghurt, pasta, jam, snacks, dehydrated fruit, pasta sauces, pita bread, dips are all things I no longer buy, instead choosing to do it myself.

• Become acquainted with food additives. There are some great websites, otherwise a couple of books I highly recommend are "Chemical Maze" (can't remember author) or "Additive Alert" by Julie Eady. Buy products that are as close to nature as possible, with as few additives and preservatives as possible.

• Eat wholegrains. Fantastic health benefits and Earth benefits as white products require so much more processing. Pasta, bread, cereal etc.

• Replace cane sugar where possible. Use honey, agave, dates (chuck them in the food processor after soaking them to make a paste) or rice malt syrup. Cane sugar crops have a massive detrimental effect on the environment and require so much processing, and aren't very good for us anyway.

• Load up on vegies and to a lesser extent fruit. Market shopping can be so much fun and vegies should constitute most of our diet.

• Drink loads of water but not bottled water. http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

• Watch your portion sizes. If you are eating natural, unprocessed food mostly, and learning to take your cues from your body about when you have had enough, you will learn to eat like our predecessors ate, just enough to fuel our bodies and give us the good stuff :)

• Avoid Genetically Modified products or ingredients. Look for products that state "No GM/GMO ingredients"

• Buy Fair Trade where possible. Communities that Fair Trade supports are traditionally 'raped and pillaged' by "Corporation/Big Business" looking for our money when their products hit the shelves. The Story of Stuff website has another little video on it, which is the original Story of Stuff video, that goes into the "true cost" of the products we buy in really good detail.

Check out these websites too:

http://www.wholefoodcooking.com.au/

http://consciouscommunity.com.au/

http://www.towards-sustainability.com/

http://www.healthyshelf.com.au/