2813: 5 Simple Ways To Reduce Food Waste by Gina Ciolkosz with A Brighter Wild on Sustainable Nutrition

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Health Daily, 5 Simple Ways To Reduce Food Waste by Gina Ciolkosz with A Brighter Wild dot com and I'm Dr. Neal, your host and narrator.

[00:00:11] Hey there, happy Saturday, hope your weekend is off to a great start and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or OHD where I act as your narrator of popular health and fitness blogs and provide my commentary at the end.

[00:00:24] Now we have multiple shows covering a bunch of different topics, just search for Optimal Living Daily in your podcast app to find all of them.

[00:00:32] Now today I'm excited to read to you a guest post from A Brighter Wild dot com.

[00:00:37] So with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:00:46] 5 Simple Ways To Reduce Food Waste by Gina Ciolkosz with A Brighter Wild dot com.

[00:00:53] 5 Food Waste is a huge deal.

[00:00:55] Not only does it waste resources, but it also wastes money.

[00:00:59] Luckily, there are 5 simple ways to reduce food waste that you can implement today.

[00:01:05] Quote,

[00:01:06] Up to 40% of the food in the United States is never eaten.

[00:01:10] But at the same time, 1 in 8 Americans struggles to put enough food on the table.

[00:01:16] National Resources Defense Council

[00:01:18] Tip 1. Plan Your Meals

[00:01:21] I am a huge fan of meal planning.

[00:01:24] Every week, I take 20 minutes to sit down and plan out about 70% of my meals.

[00:01:29] I consider my schedule for the week and I try to be realistic about how much time I will have.

[00:01:35] After I have my meals planned, I make a shopping list so I know exactly what I will need.

[00:01:40] Taking time to meal plan will help you in several ways.

[00:01:43] It makes eating healthier more convenient.

[00:01:45] It saves money because you are less likely to dine out when dinner is already planned and you have everything you need already.

[00:01:53] It reduces your food waste because you only buy the food you have a real plan for.

[00:01:58] And you avoid shopping when you're hungry.

[00:02:01] Because we all know what happens then.

[00:02:04] Tip number 2. Have Go-To Recipes

[00:02:08] Every Sunday evening, go through your fridge and pull out anything left over from the week.

[00:02:13] Play your own version of Chopped.

[00:02:15] What can you make?

[00:02:16] There are dishes that lend themselves well to incorporating odds and ends.

[00:02:20] My favorites are soups and curries.

[00:02:23] Both can use veggies that are a little past their prime.

[00:02:25] My formula for a simple curry is more of a guideline than a recipe.

[00:02:30] But it's my go-to way to sure up random leftovers and veggies that probably won't make it another week.

[00:02:36] Bone broth is an excellent way to get some use of vegetable scraps you would typically throw away.

[00:02:41] Onion peels, stems, and trimmings will add flavor, nutrition, and color to your broth.

[00:02:47] Tip 3. Utilize Your Freezer

[00:02:50] Freezing obviously prevents food from spoiling.

[00:02:53] But did you know that it also makes some micronutrients more bioavailable?

[00:02:57] I always have frozen veggies on hand to roast up quickly.

[00:03:01] And in fact, keeping your smoothie greens in the freezer has many benefits.

[00:03:06] It prevents your leafy greens from going bad.

[00:03:08] It also makes some micronutrients more bioavailable.

[00:03:12] It also helps keep your smoothie cold while blending, protecting the nutrients from oxidation.

[00:03:17] A splash of lemon juice can also help.

[00:03:20] And it allows you to assemble your smoothie ahead of time.

[00:03:23] Who hasn't bought a big bag of greens at Costco with the intention to make smoothies, and then not?

[00:03:29] You can also freeze things you will not use right away.

[00:03:32] Things like lunch meat or raw meats, fresh herbs, and bone broth freeze well also.

[00:03:38] Tip 4. Keep a clean and organized fridge

[00:03:42] Regularly going through your fridge will help reduce food waste.

[00:03:45] It prevents food from getting pushed back in the corner to rot.

[00:03:49] It also gives you a better idea of what you have so you can use it.

[00:03:53] This also goes for your freezer.

[00:03:55] Keep it organized and go through it a couple of times a year.

[00:03:59] If meat is too freezer-burned for you to eat, consider feeding it to your four-legged friend.

[00:04:05] And tip 5. Eat your leftovers.

[00:04:07] This seems too obvious to mention, but eating your leftovers reduces food waste.

[00:04:13] As simple as this seems, this is huge.

[00:04:16] I rarely plan seven different dinners.

[00:04:19] Typically, I plan on eating leftovers for two to three dinners.

[00:04:23] Or plan on utilizing leftovers for lunches.

[00:04:26] I pack lunch for myself, my partner, and kids most days.

[00:04:30] If it's not a jar salad, it's leftovers.

[00:04:33] Reducing food waste is a huge step you can take towards living greener.

[00:04:37] Remember, when you throw out food, you are wasting the resources it took to grow,

[00:04:42] transport, and prepare it.

[00:04:44] Luckily, these five simple steps will take you a long way in maximizing your nutrition

[00:04:49] and minimizing your footprint.

[00:04:54] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:04:56] Five Simple Ways to Reduce Food Waste

[00:04:59] by Gina Salkis with abrighterwild.com

[00:05:02] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:05:05] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:05:07] When I was a kid, my parents used to call me the biggest food waster in the family.

[00:05:12] Please know that I do not wear this as a badge of honor.

[00:05:16] I just was a super finicky eater.

[00:05:18] If a food didn't meet my taste expectations after two bites, I would be done with it.

[00:05:24] Again, not something I'm proud of.

[00:05:26] But since then, I've become much more mindful about food waste.

[00:05:30] In fact, as an undergraduate student, I took a class in ecology and it completely changed

[00:05:36] my perspective.

[00:05:37] That's where I first learned about how common food waste was and the things we can do to

[00:05:42] prevent it.

[00:05:43] Many of the tips Gina shared were spot on.

[00:05:46] In fact, for the longest time, I would hate eating leftovers.

[00:05:51] I told you I was a picky eater.

[00:05:52] But since then, I've come to appreciate leftovers.

[00:05:56] Well, I'll be honest.

[00:05:57] I'm a fan of most leftovers, not everything.

[00:06:00] I noticed that I love leftovers from last night's curry dishes, like Thai, Chinese, and Indian

[00:06:07] curries.

[00:06:07] It's like the extra time spent in the fridge helps make those flavors even more complex.

[00:06:13] So, which one of Gina's tips sounded reasonable to you?

[00:06:17] Whenever you're presented with a list of ideas like this, try not to feel too overwhelmed.

[00:06:23] Instead, pick the one that intrigued you the most.

[00:06:26] The one that made you stop and say, hmm, I like that idea.

[00:06:31] For me, it was eating leftovers.

[00:06:33] But again, which one made you stop and say, ooh, I like that idea?

[00:06:37] Because that's the one you'll want to try first.

[00:06:40] All right, that'll do it for today.

[00:06:42] I hope you're having a great weekend if you're listening in real time.

[00:06:45] And I'll see you back here tomorrow for The Sunday Show and where your optimal life awaits.