7 Benefits of Seasonal Eating
Seasonal Eating means eating produce that is in season, when it is ready to be harvested. There are several huge benefits to eating seasonally and we will be exploring them in more detail below:
Eating Locally - because seasonal eating focuses on eating what is currently in season in your region, it generally means that you will be eating locally as well. As we will discover, eating locally and eating seasonally overlap in many of their benefits, but one huge benefit of eating locally is that you will be helping to support your local farmers, food producers and farmers markets your community.
Environmental Impact - Also, since these food are in season locally, foods do not need to be imported from overseas and so they incur fewer food miles, helping to reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint.
Increased Freshness - because these foods do not need to be transported long distances they can be picked when theythese are ripe and sold locally, reducing the time from farm to plate by days or even weeks, meaning fresher food and more nutrition on your plate.
Higher Nutrient Value - Locally sourced produce can be picked when it is fully ripened, which ensures that all of the important vitamins, minerals, other phytonutrients are present in the foods you are eating, and because nutrients
Reduced Food Waste - There’s nothing worse than purchasing a bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables and seeing them go bad a couple of days after you purchased them. Eating locally sourced produce means the produce reaches you shortly after it is harvested allowing it to stay fresher for longer.
Cost - locally sourced foods are generally cheaper because they do not accrue the same transportation and import costs as foods that are purchased out of season and imported.
Variety - eating locally encourages you to try new foods and increases the variety of foods and therefore also increases the variety of nutrients in your diet.