Great Green Idea: Green Eating: Eating in for Gastronomic Greening

Eating in for Gastronomic Greening

How does healthy eating lead to the astronomic greening of the planet?

Source: Flickr: David365

Have you ever considered the cost of fast food, not just too family life values and healthy eating issues, but also the amount of money saving cooking energy which is wasted on a world wide scale?

Consider the detrimental fast food cost to family life and healthy eating over the past 30 years. Yes, you are saving cooking energy by eating out; but what about the cumulative side effects of this modern lifestyle habit of eating out or "buying a takeaway"?

Healthy eating at home is not just a way of saving cooking energy overall, it is one of the cornerstones of family life; everyone sitting and eating at the same time, talking over the day and dealing with the general problems and issues of family life.

When you are eating out, it is not just the fast food cost in terms of the money you will have to pay (that said eating out is never as cheap as it is made out to be) for the meal itself, but what about the fuel costs of getting there by car or bus?

Then one has to consider the cost to the environment of the fuel burned by the distribution company in their trucks, the electricity and gas that is used to cook the food and so on and so forth ad infinitum.

There are many ways to prepare and cook food at home that saves energy; preparing for 2 or 3 days in advance is one method of saving energy. The oven has to be switched on for cooking one day's meals, so it seems reasonable to cook the main ingredients of the meals all in one sitting. The oven will be switched on and in use for half an hour instead of one and a half hours over three separate days.

The main excuse many people use for not cooking at home and eating out or "buying a takeaway" is that they don't have time. Make time, it takes no more than half an hour to prepare a wholesome home cooked meal for the family.

The fast food cost, compared to healthy eating at home, is about double the cost. And the chances are that much of the food you eat out is from intensively farmed sources; while making the appearance of being cheaper, is actually more expensive and costly to the consumer, and the environment.

Many people are looking at ways to save money during this time of austerity, and one of the easiest ways of saving money is by not eating out or buying "take away" food; but to relearn the art of cooking a healthy, nutritious meal at home.

It is not to difficult to push that one step further and start sourcing your raw ingredients from local growers and farmers within the local area. Involve the kids and get them to find the cheapest prices when they are out and about, make it a game.

Eating is basically a means of refueling, but for people it should also be a time for chatting, reminiscing, sorting things out; eating together healthily in the home is a social occasion.

Sadly, over the last few years, this has been lost on a generation. The only way the trend for unhealthy eating, and not eating at home is for YOU to start in the place where it all counts. Home.