On Your Plate: The Fresh Fifteen

Attention foodies! On Your Plate is a new column about all things food-related. This includes local events, weird and wonderful dishes, cooking adventures, healthy eating advice, and anything else to do with what we eat. This week, we explore the oft-neglected and underrated world of fresh produce.

Expanding waistlines isn’t the only health problem facing the average university student. Too busy, too broke, and too lazy are common excuses for bad eating habits. Here’s the thing: if you buy fresh food, especially when shared in bulk, you’re not paying for the extra preparation and packaging of pre-made meals. You control the taste, nutrition, and ultimately your health. So here’s a challenge: avoid the frozen dinner aisle and go back to the basics. I offer you fifteen tips and tricks to get started. Ditching the Frosh Fifteen for the Fresh Fifteen habits might just make you feel amazing.

1. Tis the season! Fall is the best time of year to get a huge variety of fresh produce. Most grocery stores feature Ontario produce on sale when there’s a good harvest, so take advantage!
2. To extend the life of your fresh purchases, look up the best way to store it. For example, tomatoes are kept best at room temperature, and veggies go bad faster in the fridge if you wash them before storing.
3. Go for the double rainbow. Fruits and veggies come in all colours from red to purple, each offering different combinations of nutrients. As a general rule, mixing up the colours in your diet should provide a healthy spectrum of vitamins and minerals.
4. realfoodmovement.ca – This website is all about exploring food through taste, education, and community networks. Get inspired to eat healthy and feel good about yourself. Watch the video, if not for the awesome animation.
5. The farmers market in the SLC every Thursday is affordable for produce and bread. If you want a better selection, try the Kitchener or St. Jacobs markets (they also have apple fritters and danishes the size of your face).
6. No artificial colours or preservatives. With fresh produce, you know it’s natural because it hasn’t been processed. Although DO wash your stuff before eating it because some farmers use pesticides and there’s plenty of chance to pick up germs during the harvesting and transporting process.
7. Easiest snack ever: piece of fruit. Apples in bulk are super cheap and won’t get all beat up in your bag. Also in season: peaches, nectarines, pears, melon, and plums.
8. Ever wanted home-made fries but were too lazy to peel potatoes? Then don’t! As for many spuds, stem tubers, and veggies, a great deal of nutrients lie just beneath the skin. The skin is also full of fibre, although that still doesn’t make fried potato skins healthy. Sorry.
9. BBQ season: it’s not just for meat. If you’ve got it fired up, might as well throw on some zucchini, corn, peppers, eggplant. (Btw, major thumbs up to EngSoc’s Charity Grillfest!)
10. No one likes being sick, so be good to yourself and get your phytochemicals and antioxidants through fresh produce. It’s not all about hyped-up (and expensive) ‘superfoods’ like pomegranates and blueberries. There’s also broccoli and tomatoes.
11. Remember on the Magic School Bus when Arnold turned orange? It was all that carotene in the Seaweedies. In reality, carotene won’t turn your skin orange. It promotes healthy eyes and skin, plus it enhances immunity. Baked sweet potato fries anyone? Apricots and carrots work well too.
12. Real food trumps supplements (sorry, Flintstones fans). For example, if you want vitamin C, you can pop a vitamin chew or you eat a juicy orange. The orange also gives you fibre, water, and a broad spectrum of other vitamins. So would a grapefruit. Or a kiwi.
13. The Popeye diet? Not quite that simple. Iron keeps up your stamina and alertness, but the non-heme iron that’s abundant in plants like leafy greens isn’t absorbed very effectively by the body. Consuming vitamin C also boosts absorption.
14. The Greater Good: Local produce often has a smaller environmental footprint than imported, processed, and packaged foods. This saves resources like water and fuel, supports the local economy, and brings communities together.
15. If you are reading this list on the toilet, think of the time you could be saving if you had gotten more fibre from fresh fruits and veggies. Try peppers, pears, broccoli, apples, bananas, and oranges for starters.