Celebrate Food Day

Today is Food Day, created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. 

The purpose of Food Day is to recognize the importance of healthy, affordable foods produced in a humanitarian way. There is no doubt that fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains are delicious.  However, throughout the years our American food system has become twisted.  Today, highly processed, packaged fast foods loaded with salt, fat, sugar and calories which offer no nutritional value have become the norm.  In other words, more people are stopping at drive-thrus than they are farmers markets.

Processed foods, whether found in fast food restaurants or packaged on grocery store shelves are not natural. Unhealthy snacks are not only loaded with salt and preservatives to increase its shelf life but they are packaged in materials like cardboard and plastic which have the ability to leach into your food.  Fast food meals are made up of refined carbohydrates and fatty, grain-fed industrialized-farmed meat.   These products have contributed to the growing waistline of Americans and chronic illness such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer in the United States.

Below are the Six Food Day Principles and ways you can help!  

1. Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods

Replace salty, sugary and fatty foods with fruits, vegetables and lean meats.

 2. Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness

Purchase locally grown fruits, vegetables and other foods at farmers markets and farm stands.

 3. Expand access to food and alleviate hunger

 4. Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms

Eat less meat and more plant foods.

5. Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids

Prepare healthy home cooked meals and offer healthy snacks.

6. Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

Today, people around the nation are participating in thousands of events in schools, homes, farmers markets, churches, city halls, and state capitals to spread the good word about “real” food.

If you are interested in participating in Food Day and changing the way Americans perceive the food they consume, visit http://www.foodday.org/participate/events/ and find an event near you!

I look forward to hearing about your Food Day experience!

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