French Produce

I have always been interested in health and nutrition and after taking an intensive nutrition course at CU I decided that I wanted to pursue it as a career and help others better themselves by improving their health. Growing up in Colorado, fitness and healthy eating is part of the lifestyle and I believe that treating your body like a temple has a direct effect on one’s happiness, energy, and overall well-being. For the final exam of this nutrition course we had to prepare a three course organic meal and all of the ingredients had to be grown in Colorado. With the growing popularity of organic food, I thought this would be an easy task, but once I began I realized much of the healthy food we buy at Whole Foods comes from half way around the world. Many people don’t realize that while eating organic food has its benefits it also can have a negative impact on our planet; shipping organic apples from Australia leaves behind a massive carbon footprint, and we should be more concerned with eating locally.

I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the grocery store my first week in Paris to buy food and all the fruits and vegetables were labeled with the country they came from. I bought a plethora of vegetables that were all grown within Europe, eggs and chicken from France, and organic rice and spices to make a wonderful pot of stir-fry, without having to do any kind of extensive research to find out where my food was coming from. Whole foods has started to promote the concept of eating locally but here, even at the tiny Franprix on the corner, they have embraced these ideas and made them commonplace. I must add that there seems to be more organic food available here in general, and it is not as expensive as in the states; just this morning I walked into a bread shop to buy croissants and noticed all of their pastries and baguettes were labeled “bio” meaning they were made with organic flour. I believe that if the same food was more readily available and affordable in the states it would benefit our health and our local economy. How we treat our bodies directly effects our mood and energy levels and I want to share with others how taking a little extra time to inspect what we are putting in our bodies can go a long way.