It may seem like a daunting reality to accept that a meagre snack could have direct implications on the environment, but this concept can actually be understood coherently. It all comes down to educating yourself and applying those learning in your daily life as much as possible. Nishitha Vivek and Mansi Swami discuss why we should choose a low carbon diet
For the majority of the day, we find ourselves sitting on a chair, trying to attend a dull online class or a work meeting and ever so often we get distracted. Distracted by the myriad of snacks in our pantry and in that moment of weakness all we get is a handful of chips, a ton of air that we paid for and a plastic wrapper that won’t leave for another hundred years. This mounts on for days on the earth, in your pantry and in your body. But you are what you eat right? Extending that concept further, we land on low carbon foods, where what you eat is not just confined to you. A low carbon diet focuses mainly on tweaking your diet with respect to its impact on the earth.
Here are some of the important pillars of a low carbon diet!
Not boring, just conscious!
There are numerous diets that promise a healthy and quick result in exchange with buying expensive produce and drastic dietary changes. But formulating a diet that’s best for you and the environment should not be a painstaking task. The first tangible change would be to switch to a plant based diet. This does not necessarily mean adapting to vegetarianism or a vegan diet. Frozen meat amounts to extensive depletion of resources due meat farming, packaging and storage. Meat is not out of bounds, it is just being taken out of the spotlight. You can choose to swap out the majority of meat centric meals per week with more vegetable or lentil or nut based meals, that can equally substitute the nutrient and protein quotients.
There are a number of substitutes rich in protein available in India such as spinach, cashews, almonds, cauliflower, quinoa,broken wheat, chana dal, toovar dal, sprouted moong etc. Mushrooms and tofu are popular replacements of meat as they replace it’s texture and flavour intensity. A plant based diet can, hence, help reduce your carbon footprint and provide you with necessary nutrients, saving you from pernicious effects of meat consumption. These steps can be used to replace store bought snacks packed non-degradable materials with healthy and easy homemade snacks. This is a perfect way to watch what you eat, know every step of the way and make sure that you are generating less waste for the environment.
Sweet potato chips
One such snack that is easy to make and light on the earth are sweet potato chips. It includes a two-step process and you can use the entire vegetable, hence, generating zero waste.
Toss sliced sweet potato in olive oil, chilli powder and salt or any seasoning according to your taste. Preheat the oven at 200°C. Line a tray with a silicon baking sheet and slightly oil it. Lay the tossed slices on the tray and bake for 10 mins on one side. Flip them and bake them for about 3-5 mins depending on the shape or thinness of your slices. The same can be done using potato, carrot and beetroot.
Don’t buy your food an airline ticket!
We are constantly surrounded by amazing food pictures from all around the globe on the internet, magazines and newspapers. Supermarket chains promote the supply of exotic ingredients to cook a picture-perfect dish, but we really need to stop and evaluate the necessity of these ingredients.
Do we really need exotic vegetables which have travelled hundreds of kilometers in a cold storage truck for that one dinner? Food brands market all sorts of processed ingredients as ‘healthy’ and ‘low-fat’ and it is difficult to not get tempted and give in.
But cooking is not just about following a recipe which someone came up with in a different part of the world, with a bunch of ingredients available to them. Cooking is about experimenting and improvising with what we have.
So, the next time you want to buy a ‘low-fat’ salad dressing just grind a few spoons full of curd, cilantro and salt, and you have a healthier, non-processed, home-made salad dressing in minutes.
Eat Seasonally!
If you find yourself standing in a vegetable market thinking of buying a bunch of blueberries or some u bell peppers, just take a moment and think if you really need that ingredient in your pantry.
We often come across the term ‘eat seasonal’ but what does it actually constitute? It is a very simple concept which is focused on increasing the consumption of ingredients which are grown in a particular climate and region. So, if you are someone who does not buy frozen peas in summer then you are pretty much on the right track.
Eating seasonally not just reduces your carbon footprint but also helps in supporting local farmers and makes you a valuable part of the ecosystem.
Try Old school!
If you ask your parents or grandparents about their cooking habits growing up, you will realise it was widely based on techniques which were sustainable. This might be due to minimal involvement of electronic appliances and these cooking habits were more sustainable than the ones we have today.
There are a number of dishes that can be prepared without using gas stoves or ovens. This is one of the easiest ways to keep the carbon footprint of your kitchen in check by conserving energy. Although you can use some eco-friendly appliances, you can always give it a rest and try something new at the same time.
Low carbon food can be seen as a way of cooking with alterations rather than limitations. These alterations when made regularly, seamlessly weave into your daily life. This is what adds up to a healthy and positive way of caring for the environment.
Source: https://www.organoetschool.co.in
