| And the more I get to know her and the more I use her product, the more I know she wants to be part of the solution to our food safety issues and the many things people are passionate here about food, just as I am.
And it's not just about food, but how food makes us feel, how it affects our health, our environment and our family's health. It's all connected and Mareya loves how I see those connections and she's been so excited to share those discoveries with me, the articles, the stories and hopefully real solutions.
So it was this week that the Blog was relaunched and I've gotten to dive into writing daily tips related to food and health related tips, scouring the internet for ideas and hopefully getting to share my own tips. There is so much information out there and I love finding it and I really LOVE to share it.
So the blog is The Cleaner Plate Club includes a couple of tips I put together.
#3: Waste Not, Want More. Studies show almost 50% of all food in the U.S. goes to waste. Hard to stomach but it's sometimes harder to know how to stop the steady stream of uneaten left overs or rotten food from ending up in the compost heap or even worse, the trash. EAT CLEANER can help you end the flow of wasted food by extending the life of your fresh fruits and veggies by up to 200%. Just wash with EAT CLEANER when you bring food home from the store, dry thoroughly and store in preferably air tight containers or anything designed to stop spoilage. Both measures will mean longer life for your food and hard earned money.
And what about the food that you can't seem to keep from the trash? Keep a food waste diary and to track what gets thrown away. Then you can figure out what your buying too much of and what your family doesn't need. http://www.thekitchn.com
#4: EAT CLEANER with the seasons. Eat Cleaner knows that your food travels far and wide before it winds up in your kitchen and on your meal time plates. That's why we created our product to help eliminate the chemicals and germs that have come in contact with your fruits and vegetables before it makes its way to your shopping cart and eventually to your table.
But Eat Cleaner isn't just about making your food clean and taste better, it's also spreading the word about other ways you can "Eat Cleaner". By shortening the travel time of your produce, it helps lessen its environmental impact and can boost your local economy. Buying in season can accomplish both these things and the bonus is that your food is fresher, more nutrient rich and better for you (When food has to travel long distances they pick it before it's even ripe).
Good.com has partnered with Always with Honor.com to create a guide to when fruits and veggies are in season in your State. " Produce travels 1,500 miles on average from farm to table. Minimize this by buying food grown locally. To get you started, here is a season-by-season list of when 10 common fruits and vegetables are locally available around the United States.
I know, big deal? But this is what I hope to be doing for Eat Cleaner, as well as such outreach as the Time for Lunch Campaign, lobbying State and National leaders to do more with our food safety laws. We must change how we look at our food, from our protein on sea and land (Overfishing and livestock production are both huge issues) to what we subsidize and how we support local, organic farmers. Our priorities need to shift, but you knew that.
And the time is ripe to continue to keep pounding on this drum because more and more people are thinking about where their food comes from.
Did you see Iron Chef this weekend; you know the one where the First Lady asked the competing Uber Chefs to use anything from the White House garden? The only requirement from Mrs. Obama was to inspire Americans to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and go local.
So, Eat Cleaner is not just about being a Food wash and wipe but about trying to educate the public about food safety and how they can empower themselves in the Kitchen. Where does their food come from and what does it take for it to get from field to kitchen? It's a good question and more people should be aware of this process, especially when we're learning that ammonia is a common means to treat our meat. So we can eat it but it's a hazmat issue when it leaks from a local Deli plant? Seriously?
This is my new passion and I consider myself blessed to have made a new friend in Mareya, someone who is just as passionate as I am about food issues, the environment and her family. She is also a great friend, which is hard to come by.
And lastly I want to share the newest part of the Eat Cleaner educational multi-media blitz, all part of getting the message out there about how food can be and should be safer. Here is a video that Mareya did with her father, Dr. Shawki Ibrahim, Ph.D. Environmental Science, The Real Dirt On What's Lurking on Your Plate... |
