What is
Sustainability?

Program
Deliverables

How Can I
Help?

The Arboretum at
Penn State Behrend

HOW CAN I HELP?

Food

• Compost
• Eat organic foods
• Eat less meat
• Try growing some of your own food
• Buy from a local farmer or co-op
• Eat foods that are in-season locally
• Follow the theory of proper food combining:
  • Eat fresh fruit by itself, allowing it 30 minutes to digest before eating other foods.
  • Combine veggies with proteins, or veggies with starches, but NOT proteins with starches.
  • Plate of food should be 50%+ green.
  • Try to balance acid foods with more alkaline ones. Foods which cause acidic reactions in the body when ingested include meats (esp. red meat), dairy products (due to casein), most fruits, nuts, refined sugar, corn sweeteners, chocolate, refined flour products (especially due to gluten), soft drinks, beer, wine, coffee, and black tea. Alkaline foods include vegetables, starches, non-gluten-containing whole-grain products, beans and peas, seafood, eggs, and a few fruits like melons and papayas
  • Allow food to digest for 3 hours before ingesting fruit again. For more optimal digestion, oxygenate the body through aerobic exercise prior to eating and/or take a brisk walk after eating.
  • Drink liquids (e.g. water) before meal or in very small sips during meal - never dilute mouthful of food with liquid as it dilutes the action of the enzymes in the mouth and washes food down to the stomach quickly, preventing proper digestive action to take place along the way.
• Crush garlic and let sit for 10 minutes before cooking to allow enzymes to release anti-cancer compounds.
• When using sweeteners, remember that fructose burns at a lower temperature than sucrose, and it’s sweeter than sucrose. Also, honey is changed by heat - you can notice the difference in taste, and it is not healthy to ingest. Dissolve honey in warm, not hot water, and use other sweeteners in baking, cooking or hot beverages.
• Nightshade family fruits (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes) can cause arthritic conditions in some people, are sources of allergy for others, and should be consumed in moderation. Because toxic solanine is found in pretty high quantities in the skin of the potato, Bargyla Rateaver (Organic Primer Update) recommends peeling it.
• Keep tomatoes at room temperature to allow for further ripening and maximum vitamin C.
• When baking, use 15% rye flour when using wheat flour. Rye blocks the action of phytates in the wheat, and phytates lock up iron and other minerals.
• Soak nuts and seeds to activate enzymes for easier digestion.
• Eat fresh raw foods (and soaked seeds and nuts) if you have digestive difficulties. Freshly-picked food must be consumed immediately for best effect of enzymes and vitamins – or cool down to near freezing within minutes of picking to preserve.
• Eat fully cooked food (i.e., Macrobiotic) if you’re having immune system problems (e.g. cancer) to reduce the number of parasitic invaders in your body. Certain cooked foods, especially carrots, are more “bioavailable” for nutrient absorption since cooking breaks down the tough cell walls of the root, which might otherwise pass through unabsorbed. Note that juicing also breaks down the cell walls and frees these same nutrients. Ideally, use grass juice enemas to deliver nutrients directly to the bloodstream through the walls of the colon, especially if there is significant weight loss.
• Egg substitute recipe - 4 tsp flax seed, ground fine, whisked into 1/4 C water until thick. Ratio is 1/4 C flaxseed to 3/4 C water for 3 eggs. Works well in cakes and a few other baked goods. Does not work for quiches, custards or meringues! Unnoticeable in cakes, it has a somewhat mucilaginous presence in pies and frittatas.
• If cooking food, lightly steamed is optimal, baked is next best, sautéed in a small amount of oil is next, and fried or deep fried is about the worst you can do to your food - about the same as grilling over a flame or charcoals. These latter two methods introduce many carcinogenic materials into your foods. The best oil to use is still recommended to be olive oil, but do not use it to fry. Grape-seed oil is better to use if heating oil to higher temperatures. Canola oil is next best. Store oils in the refrigerator to prevent them from turning rancid.
• Since many chemical pesticides and herbicides will become quite concentrated in plant oils, it is best to use oils, which are from organically-grown sources.
• Cooking pots and pans should be, ideally, either cast iron or glass; stainless steel is next best, and aluminum is the worst. Aluminum toxicity has been linked to Alzheimer disease. Coated aluminum pans (Teflon or porcelain) eventually scratch or chip, exposing your food to the chemical bonding substrate and the direct aluminum. Some Teflon pans also give off a toxic gas when heated which has been documented to kill birds kept as house pets.
• Cranberries, rhubarb, chard, beet greens and spinach contain high amounts of oxalic acid, which and cause calcium loss. To inhibit calcium loss, prepare high-oxalic content foods with a “buffer”:
  • Cook them in milk
  • Serving them with yogurt or sesame tahini dressings
  • Some also claim that vitamin C prevents the oxalic acid from robbing the body of calcium
  • Avoid eating these foods raw. Even light steaming begins to break down the oxalic acid.
• Always rinse fruits/vegetables before eating
• Eat less fast food
• Support sustainable agriculture
• Healthy alternatives to junk food:
  • Grilled chicken/fish/portabella mushroom instead of beef
  • Salad instead of fried appetizers
  • Vegetables instead of pasta or potatoes
  • Juice or water instead of shakes or soda
  • Vegetable soup instead of chowder or cream soup
  • Turkey breast on oatmeal bread instead of bologna, salami, ham, etc
  • Low fat salad dressing instead of regular dressing, mayonnaise, oil, etc
  • Oatmeal, Syrian or wheat bread instead of white bread
  • Nonfat frozen yogurt, sorbet or sherbet instead of ice-cream
  • Whole-grain bagel with jam instead of doughnut or sugar/honey sweeten pastry
  • Low-fat banana-nut or zucchini bread instead of cake
  • Whole-grain cereal or oatmeal topped with brown sugar instead of sugar flakes
  • Low fat chips, microwave popcorn, or pretzels instead of potato chips
  • Nonfat sour cream, nonfat plain yogurt instead of sour cream
  • Fresh berries or sliced bananas instead for sundae toppings
  • Fresh fruit, un-sweetened frozen fruit instead of canned fruits in sugar syrup
  • Low-fat or fat-free lunch meat