Sustainable Steps

Eat Well

There are three factors in play when I go to the grocery store — four if my daughter is with me, distracting me with her many ideas of what else we might like to try.

• human health
• price
• planet health

I’d love to prioritize the planet higher than price, but groceries are expensive these days. Luckily, what’s good for us is usually good for the planet — so if all you focus on is human health, you’ll be well on your way to making the earth happier, too.

Eating well is also a powerful political message. Every time we buy something, we’re telling the company we buy it from to produce more of it. And every item we leave behind? We leave that company wondering what they might do differently to earn the sale. That’s a powerful tool — especially if we do it collectively.

You can read blog posts for more in-depth conversation about specifics, but here are some general guidelines for sustainable grocery shopping.

Steps Members: Check steps off the list below as you complete them. No need to rush it or do it all at once — take your time and give each action meaning, whenever it’s right for your life.

Not a Steps Member? Join us. It’s free, it’s fun, and we might even save the planet.

Buy Whole, Unprocessed Foods

Food in its natural state (like an orange) has more nutrients and less chemicals than their refined counterparts (even something as pure as orange juice). They also use less packaging, and have a lower carbon footprint to produce them.

When you do buy packaged food, look for short ingredient lists that only have foods you recognize. The less weird chemically sounding items on that list, the less processed the food likely is.

Some tricks to help you do this are:

Fresh produce, dairy, and other whole foods are often found around the edges of the grocery store, while many ultra-processed foods are in the centre aisles. Starting around the perimeter can make it easier to fill your cart with nutritious, minimally processed options.

---

Have fun with it. Let your kids choose something different, or impulse buy a kind of produce, nut, or grain that’s not in your usual rotation. This is a great way to be healthy and add some variety to your menu.

---

Is there one packaged item you normally buy that you can skip this week? Even stopping to ask yourself the question is a sustainable step toward cleaner eating and less packaging waste.

---

Choose foods with simple, recognizable ingredients whenever you can. Fewer highly processed ingredients often means less packaging, less processing, and foods that are closer to their natural state. But even just stopping to read labels will make you more aware of what’s in your food — a sustainable step for your shopping education.

Be Picky About Meat (Or Avoid It)

There’s no way around it: meat and dairy farming are heavy greenhouse gas producers.

One option people often take with the planet in mind is to be vegetarian or vegan. If that’s you, then (a) thank you, and (b) you can go ahead and check all the boxes in this section if you’re step counting, plus this one that the carnivores can’t touch:

Another school of thought is that humans are natural omnivores, and we do better with some meat as part of our diets. If that’s you, we have some tips for eating meat with as clean a footprint as possible.

In most Blue Zones — the places in the world with the highest concentration of people who live past 100 — they eat meat an average of twice per week. Most of this is pork, chicken, and lamb — little to no beef. As a sustainable compromise, try a week where you eat beef once, max. Already do that? Tick that box and move on…

---

In those Blue Zones, a serving size of meat averages two ounces — about one quarter the size of an average restaurant steak. Not sure if that’s because they’re including the one-hundred-plus-year-olds in that figure, who probably eat less of everything, but it does make sense that we North American carnivores could shave a couple ounces off the portion size we’ve grown used to, helping the longevity of our species and ourselves (and our wallets) at the same time.

---

Be picky when you’re buying meat. The stuff you find in most grocery stores and restaurants (including many high end steak houses!) is full of growth hormones and antibiotics that allow farmers to keep livestock in less than ideal conditions for their health and well being (and the health of those who eat them). The good stuff does cost more — but that’s easily offset by the savings if we’re eating less of it! Here are some things to look for on the labels:

Level 1: most cost effective — do this if nothing else

Level 2: better for you and the planet — not least because it hasn’t eaten any GMO corn.

Level 3: If you have the budget, this is a beautiful agricultural practice that restores soil health and biodiversity while producing meat in a sustainable and ethical manner. If all farming was regenerative farming, our planet would be very happy.

---

Last but not least on the meat front — if you can ditch the processed stuff, like bacon and hot dogs, you’ll be doing your health a big favor. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning there is convincing evidence that it causes colorectal cancer. As a sustainable step, why not try giving it up for a week?

Grow Your Own Food

For most of us, this won’t be especially efficient. I have definitely spent more time and money trying to grow fruits and herbs and vegetables than I would have spent buying them from the store. But it offers a pretty great perspective on the earth and the food we eat. It’s a great activity to do if you have kids. My daughter loves taking friends out on the deck when our strawberries or blueberries are in bloom and offering them the bounty from our tiny crop.

Below are some more tips that aren’t checklist items, but they’re still important!

Fill Your Plate With Plants

Make it colourful — eat the rainbow of fresh fruits and vegetables — bonus if they’re local. Double bonus for organic. Triple for regenerative agriculture. Opt for whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, and oats. Go for sprouted when it works. They’re cleaner and healthier than their refined cousins.

Support Sustainable Seafood

Look for certifications like MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) or Ocean Wise, to ensure it’s sourced in a way that does no harm to marine life.

Choose Organic When It Won’t Break The Bank

Organic farming avoids synthetic pesticides and fertilizers — and most importantly, glyphosate — the herbicide used to treat most GMO crops. For some foods, like corn and berries, I find this non-negotiable. For others, like bananas and oranges, I don’t think it matters as much. If you’re curious, I made a cheat sheet for the foods I buy organic and the ones I relax about.

Buy Local Whenever You Can

Great for your local economy and carbon footprint. You’ll also get fresher food that tastes better.

Support Stores Who Only Sell Good Food

• Choices Market is a Vancouver-based chain that really gets it right. They sell healthy, local products, and they compost any waste from their bakery, meat, and produce sections.
• Natura Market is a wonderful online store with a curated selection of foods they consider “clean.” With free delivery in Canada over $59, I find this a great place to stock up on healthy pantry items.
• SPUD is a grocery delivery company that has a comprehensive list of banned ingredients — harmful things you’ll never find in any of the food they sell. It’s expensive, but has great customer service and they save a trip to the store.
• Whole Foods also has a banned ingredient list — though they do allow GM corn, so you still have to be a savvy shopper there, but it’s much cleaner than any other big chain grocery store. I have a bit of a moral dilemma since it’s owned by Jeff Bezos, but the health factor is real.

Want to dive deeper into good food and drink? Check out the blog posts below: