We are what we eat. What we eat impacts our environment, the local economy, and the welfare of animals.
Lunchtime Mint Lane Cafe, two pamphlets had appeared on this theme, asking people to question where their food came from. A qr code for further information, a food conference that took place during the week.
Lincoln is a food swamp, crap corporate chain eateries, disgusting junk food takeaways and binge drinking bars. We need to do better.
Lincolnshire is an agricultural county, Lincoln the county town. Lincoln lacks a market. The nearest markets, south of the county in Stamford every Friday or across the River Trent in Nottinghamshire Ruddington first Saturday of the month.
We are all experts on food. We all eat.
Over 90% of information on nutrition on-line is incorrect.
When a supermarket claims a food is healthy, without exception it is not.
Ultra-processed foods are killing us. It now exceeds smoking as the leading cause of death. We should treat ultra-processed foods as we treat tobacco.
- hazard warnings
- ultra-processed food tax
- no sponsorship of sporting or cultural events
- no promotion
Blue Zones are unique isolated areas in the world where the people live to a healthy old age. Key factors: diet, exercise and community.
Singapore has created Blue Zone 2.0. Green spaces, elderly cared for in the community not dumped in care homes, access to healthy food, exercise encouraged.
Singapore found education of little value. Instead create the environment where healthy food choices are made easy.
Singapore created an app, that not only counts steps, but rewards those steps. Vouchers to be spent on healthy food. [see National Steps Challenge]
Walk, don’t drive. Reclaim the Streets.
Through reclaiming the streets, we are operating at the interface between business, environment and society, a component part of Doughnut Economics, where the local economy is designed to be regenerative and distributive, with people and the environment at its heart. We kick cars out of our town centres, we plant trees, we improve the ambience, we create a space where local businesses and communities can thrive, breathe clean air, or simply relax with a good coffee, read a book, sit and watch the world go by. [see Reclaim the Streets]
Adapt Mediterranean habits. Slow down. Friends meet over a coffer or wine. Not to get pissed. Arrange to meet friends for a coffee or a glass of wine in an independent coffee shop where they care about coffee not in a bar. No phones.
There should be a presumption in planning against Drive-Thru fast food takeaways, building on green field sites and flood plains.
Why are some areas bad, others good? What can we do to elevate the bad areas?
Don’t use food deliveries. Learn how to cook, or go out and eat. On-the-spot fines for riding through the pedestrianised city centre, ignoring traffic lights and road signs. Illegal e-bikes and e-scooters, seize and destroy.
Pedestrianised areas should be traffic free.
Food miles are simplistic. Riverford found they could extend the seasons by heating greenhouses, but it was less carbon intensive to truck in from Europe.
Eat smart.
Poor health: diet, lack of exercise, stress.
Poor health is costing the country billions of pounds. It’s not only the cost to the NHS, it’s also loss of productivity.
Buy fresh fruit and vegetables local. Eat seasonal fruit and vegetables. Support local independent businesses.
- fruit and vegetable stall in the High Street Wednesday Friday Saturday
- Fresh From the Fields Bailgate
- S Sharpe and Daughter Langworth
- surplus fruit and vegetables Mint Lane Cafe
Local family butchers
- Pepperdine Sincil Street
- Redhill Farm shop Bailgate
Support local independent coffee shops where they care about coffee.
- Coffee Aroma
- Madame Waffle
- Vestry Hall Coffee
Coffee is healthy. High in polyphenols and fibre.
Always check the ingredients. A long list, with names you don’t know, let alone can pronounce, put back on the shelves.
Sourdough bread is healthy. Supermarket shrink-wrapped white bread is not.
Bailgate Deli stocks excellent Wellbeck sourdough bread. Try lunch, Momo kombucha.
Money spent with local businesses is recycled within the local economy. Money spent in a corporate chain is drained out of the local economy leaving us all poorer.
Support regenerative farming.
Eat at least 30 plants a week. Eat the rainbow. Five a Day is dated.
Add fermented foods to your diet.
Participate in the three week three fermented foods a day trial. Record each day: mood, hunger, energy. Start on the first day of the month. Psychological effect of fresh start day, a restart point.
Try a kimchi pancake from Little Korea. Delicious.
Breakfast is not cereal in a bowl. That is decades of brainwashing by Big Food. We then feel hungry, due to the sugar spike followed by a sugar crash. We then snack on a chocolate bar brought to us by Big Food.
Try muesli from Lincoln Eco Pantry, gold top milk (never unhealthy skimmed milk), fresh or dried fruit, a banana, Greek yogurt, maybe add kefir.
Keystone behaviour. If we start the day with a healthy breakfast, or the first meal of the day, it affects our behaviour for the rest of the day.
Healthy dessert. In a bowl, fresh and dried fruit, a good portion of Greek yogurt, sprinkle on top granola, around the edge, peices of dark chocolate.
Draw up Doughnut Economics Lincoln. [see Doughnut Economics Cyprus]
If the poor are getting poorer, the environment is degrading, we are doing something wrong, very wrong.
further reading
- The Blue Zones – Dan Buettner
- The Blue Zones Kitchen – Dan Buettner
- Ferment – Tim Spector
- Ferment – Kenji Morimoto
- The Food For Life Cookbook – Tim Spector
- Eat Yourself Healthy – Jamie Oliver
- How to Eat 30 Plants a Week – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
- Doughnut Economics – Kate Raworth
Keithpp's Blog 