Food choices impacting our bodies and the earth

Do you ever feel like food choices are kind of like ‘buzz words?’ I know in my profession as a surgeon and being in the medical field, we have plenty of words we use that sound like they should be understandable enough, but many people don’t stop and say, “Hey, what exactly to you mean by that?” And perhaps they choose not to do so because they feel they’ll look silly, or they internally decide to Google it later on only to find that days go by and it’s still not been researched. Many people do this. I know I have. So, today, we’re going to get down to the nitty gritty on food and food buzz words, so you can actually go out there and make an informed decision on what to look for and what to buy.

The big words we’ve been hearing lately are local, organic, and sustainable. What do these words really mean and do they mean the same thing? We had Dr. Rita Dodge on the Humanity Behind the Vanity a couple of weeks ago. We’ve had her as a guest on the show before and she is so in tune with the body and what works best nutritionally so we were excited to have her back. In this episode, Dr. Dodge discusses these three words…local, organic and sustainable…what they really mean, and explains that just because one thing may be organic doesn’t mean it’s sustainable or organic or vice versa.

Buying local – This is when you buy from a farmer in your area. This does not necessarily mean that you’re buying organic. What is does mean is that you are helping to reduce the “carbon footprint” because the food doesn’t have to travel thousands of miles to get to you, burning up lots of fuel (carbon).

Buying organic – This means that the food you’re buying has not been treated with pesticides or any other chemicals. Also, if you buy organic, that doesn’t mean it’s local. There are small farms and huge farms all over the world that are organic. If you buy a fruit from South America that is organic, it isn’t necessarily sustainable and it has a large carbon footprint.

Sustainable – This means you are looking at where the food is coming from and making sure that those who are growing the food use healthy practices (don’t harm the environment, respect their workers, are humane to animals, and support farming communities.) Sustainability includes buying food as locally as possible but doesn’t mean local is always sustainable. Does this make sense? Perhaps hearing us talk about it will help:

As I said in the video, we have so many patients who use plastic surgery as a starting point to make serious changes in their lives. It is then our responsibility to help educate them after so they progress toward their goals. It’s been told to me that what you put in your body is 80% of how you look. We only have one body. We only have one earth. What can we do to make a difference? Do you have any thoughts on this?

And SPEAKING of making a difference, Vanity for Vision was last week and I, along with around 50 other doctors in the United States participated in it this year. We just found out today that between the patients who came in and supported as well as donated or pledged funds, we were able to raise over $55K for Eyes of Africa.
THANK YOU! Everyone who came out to support on my behalf, you all did an amazing job. If you’d like to learn more about Eyes of Africa, visit http://www.endingblindness.org.

Thank you again for your support.

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