Shopper's Rut Defined: buying the same 'ole fruits and veggies every week:
- bunch of bananas
- few apples
- an orange or two on occasion and maybe a pear here or there
- stock of broccoli
- pre-washed & prepared lettuce of some sort
- carrots
- maybe a cuke or bell pepper
- perhaps some celery because it is easy
Why Should You Avoid This Same 'Ole - Same 'Ole Produce Shopping Experience... (Hint: to avoid eating the same things day after day, week after week!)
- Variety in fruits and veggies creates variety in the vitamin, minerals, anti-oxidants, and phytonutrients your body is graced with. There are so many nutrients in food that we have not yet discovered. Opting to eat produce that varies with the season opens your body, your body cells, to receiving all of these nutrients.
- Phytonutrients fight oxidative stress, inflammation, and allow your body to heal for disease prevention and disease healing (You want this, trust me and yes, your body is capable of healing from any disease. It is how we are genetically programmed. The "you must take this drug for the rest of your life" medical mentality erases the fact that the body has the ability to heal.).
- Mixing up your fruit & veggies provides your body with different kinds of fiber, the roughage in food. Fiber, complex carbohydrates are good on so many levels. See below for some gut bug info.
- Your taste buds, eyes, nostrils, hands, and brain will be happy for the variation in sensory stimulation. All the colors, textures, smells, and tastes are an amazing way to stimulate your neural pathways. Think of that beautiful summer salad on your plate and then the slow rotation into fall and winter veggies giving us tantalizing root veggie and cabbage slaws. Then there is my favorite winter veggie... beets! A winter, cooked beet salad with walnuts & feta cheese is a taste bud tantalizing change from the same ole - same ole steamed or sauteed broccoli.
Above picture borrowed, with permission, from the website of Martin's Farmstand, Potsdam, NY. Look at the seasonal abundance available in Northern NY! Go to their website and have fun clicking on the "previous newsletter" links. The pictures from the farmstand, the farm fields, and gardens are amazing. Lush and juicy, fresh, local, and seasonal food everywhere! And all this food is tended to with love by wonderful people. For your fall & winter veggies... give them a call.
Looking for a winter CSA in Northern NY State?:
- Kent Family Growers,
- Birdsfoot Farm,
- LittleGrasse FoodWorks OR check out
- GardenShares website to find a farmer close to you that sells produce, meats, cheeses, milk, herbs, spring plants, etc.
Try these ideas to eat more variety in your fruits and veggies:
- Get Creative in the Kitchen
- Eat Seasonally Fruits & Veggies & Naturally Rotate Your Phytonutrients
- Use Root vegetables instead of grains to add plenty of complex carbohydrates and starches to your eating habits. This is good gut pre-biotic food that feeds the gut bugs you want to survive and thrive in your intestinal tract. A healthy gut microbiome is a self-responsibility tool in your personal medicine bag to prevent intestinal disease, auto-immune diseases, cancer, and a host of other preventable human ills. And food is your easy, at home medicine!
- Grate veggies on a grater (or use a fancy spiralizer); use these grated veggies instead of pastas. Depending on the veggie, I use some raw and gently saute' others.
- Learn what fruits & berries grow in your area, what their season is, and freely indulge in them.
