Eating Fresh and Local: Modern Hunter-Gathering

In the holistic nutrition world we are pretty focused on food as a foundation for health. The most basic idea is to eat food as close to it’s natural form as possible that is full of living enzymes, and has the highest quality of nutrients. Another component of that is that the more local the food is grown or raised, the fresher it will be, and if it’s grown in rich soil that is free of pesticides it will have even more beneficial qualities are a big help to our gut microbiome. The 100 mile diet was a fad for a while, but it definitely has its merits and major benefits.

There’s no time like a visit to the “farmers market” to get fully invested in finding local sources of food! It’s a great time to get out and talk to the people growing our food at farmer’s markets, roadside stands, or joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Knowing where our food is coming from is a really important way to get more connected with the whole process of food production, and if more of us start taking an interest, it will make amazing, local, biodynamic rich foods more available and cost effective. I always like to think of it like modern hunter-gathering and take it as a bit of a challenge. Getting out there and sourcing the best quality food, direct from the producers, visiting the farms if possible—it’s basically the same thing our ancestors did but a lot less work! That’s not to say it doesn’t take some time and effort.

When I first moved to Calgary almost 9 years ago, the first thing I did in the first week was source my markets, butchers/meat producers, and other local food suppliers. My grocery day takes a bit longer than average because I’ll drive to multiple places to get what I’m looking for, but it’s well worth it. We’re moving to a different part of the city soon, and I’m already working out how to make some bulk meat purchases from various providers so I can make my grocery days a bit more efficient. We’ve always lived 5 minutes from a Community Natural Foods, so that’s going to be a tough one. A lot of places are offering delivery for a pretty small fee as well, so that’s one great way to take advantage of what might otherwise be a time-consuming endeavor. We have amazing food production across the country that is all small-scale local farming, so we also get to support our local economy!

So where do you find these places? Google is pretty helpful to search terms like “farmer’s market”, “butcher”, “grass fed beef Calgary”, “superfoods Calgary” or “Calgary CSA”. The main thing is to ask questions when you get there. Talk to the farmers about their growing practices, how their animals are raised, what goes into the feed, etc. It’s pretty enlightening once you begin to see just how much care and thought goes into raising and growing that food, and I really think it comes through in the taste, color, and most importantly the nutrient quality of that food.

Are you looking to get even healthier? Are you concerned with where to find your local food? Could you use some support figuring out how to eat to support local? Curious about how nutritional health coaching can help you make healthy changes? Let’s talk! Schedule an initial complimentary consultation with us today—or pass this offer on to someone you care about! Visit www.noshoesnutrition.com and sign up for a FREE consultation.  We work with people from all over the world individually or in groups so don’t let anything hold you back!