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Can't afford to go completely organic? Then chose organic for The Dirty Dozen.

Eat Less Red Meat

Your cardiologist has probably been suggesting that you cut back on red meat for years to lower your cholesterol and decrease your risk of heart disease, but she probably didn’t mention that eating a low meat diet uses 41% less energy and generates 37% fewer greenhouse gases.  And she may not have brought up the fact that it takes 1/3 pound of fertilizer to grow the grains to produce just one pound of cooked beef.  Add to that the depletion of valuable land and water, and the environmental contamination from antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, and fertilizers, and you might want to think twice before ordering that bi-weekly T-bone. 

Go Organic 

While the cost of organic foods can be a bit intimidating during these trying economic times, eating organic as often as possible can help prevent damage to our environment and help conserve our precious energy resources.   Why?  Organic agriculture uses about 30% less fossil fuel than conventional agriculture.  From a health standpoint, eating organic is especially important when it comes to fruits, vegetables and grains, which are more likely to contain pesticide residues than meat, poultry, eggs and dairy.  High doses of pesticides have been linked to cancer, nervous system disease and birth defects in animals suggested that some effect in humans is a very real possibility.  If you can’t afford to go organic completely, make sure to choose organic when it comes to the ‘dirty dozen’ fruits and veggies list created by the Environmental Working Group.  These are:

The Dirty Dozen

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet bell peppers
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Pears
• Grapes (imported)
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Potatoes

Choose Local Products

Buying food produced by local farmers helps encourage and preserve sustainable farming practices by increasing crop diversity which can help decrease use of pesticides and fertilizers through crop rotation.  In addition, in some, but not all cases, buying locally can help decrease the risk of green house gas emissions through decreased transportation requirements.  In addition, although local products may in many cases carry a higher price tag than massive corporate farm produced food products, this price increase may be offset by the increased cost of fuel necessary for transportation of product across the country.  Finally, local products often taste better and are consumed fresh, which decreases the need for chemical preservatives or irradiation to extend their shelf life.

Dr. Melina Jampolis, M.D. is a board certified physician nutrition specialist.  She was the host of “Fit Tv’s Diet Doctorz", the author of The No Time to Lose Diet (Nelson, 2007), and the diet and fitness expert for CNNHealth.com.  She maintains a small, private practice in San Francisco.  You can email her at: DrMelina@SmartNow.com.  For more information, visit www.drmelina.com.