Organic vegI am watching what I eat. But I’m not on a diet. Diets deprive and that doesn’t work for me. Instead, I am trying to be aware of everything I eat and drink, what it is, where it has come from and how it was produced.

There is not a lot more important than how we nourish our one and only body. Imagine if we were allowed just one car to last us our whole life. I’m pretty sure we would fill it with the best quality fuel, get regular and fullsome services and do everything possible to prolong its life.

So it’s funny how often we barely notice what we’re eating. Food is so cheap and readily available that we can buy it and scoff it without even thinking. We live in a disposable, throwaway society. We eat when we’re not hungry and buy clothes we don’t need. When things are cheap you respect them less. You certainly don’t think about the work that has gone into making them.

Awareness is everything. Get curious about how and where your food was produced. We assume that local, organic food is more expensive and often it has to be. Ethically-raised meat costs more than factory farmed. Crops grown without pesticides and fertilisers yield less, pushing up prices. But we have found a local organic farm where we buy a weekly box of veg for just 11€ (pictured). It is different every week and entirely seasonal, which means it sustains us perfectly at this time of year.

When things are much more expensive, we eat less of them. A quality, free-range chicken here is up to four times the price of a UK supermarket chicken. So we do what people used to do, eat meat less frequently but treat ourselves to a quality cut when we do. I hate spending money. But I do not begrudge spending money on good food. When it costs more, you think harder about whether you really need it. And when you prepare and eat it, you really make it count. Your body deserves that.

Filed under: Happy Coulson

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