Hungry for Change? Our 10 Tips, Give Us Yours!

Aim to eat foods whose names and ingredients you can pronounce. Shy away from food that's "invented" food~instead, stick with what's good for you, the soil and the planet. Keep it simple yet delicious!

Demand from urban planners and managers in your community to start building green urban environments that foster individual gardens. Apartment complex, condos, villages should have community gardens in mind. The recession is forcing us to do a cultural shift to conservation and frugality. This is the best time to start on this kind of initiatives.

Go back to (or begin) cooking with as many locally and sustainably-grown food(s) for ingredients as possible!

even better give up meat all together!If every one was a vegetarian there would be enough food to feed the world;FACT.Linda McCartney pies r gorgeous,quorn products are uncanny do the world a favour,try it

grow your own food

Become Vegan; buy local farmer's produce; don't participate in the horror which animals have to endure, in order to make it to your plate. You would not eat your pet - would you?

Go Vegan. Anything else is missing the point.

Raise your own vegetables in a small "baby pool" if no earth is near, use your scraps as mulch for next year.

When I want something sweet to eat I grab dark chocolate and raw almonds. This is really good together.

Go Grassfed!

Eat Meats that are grassfed and humanely raised

My family has started drinking almond milk instead of soy milk. We also don't eat pork or beef. We are trying to cut down on the chicken. We buy chicken when on sale to cut down on the cost of our grocery bill. Most of the time when we do eat chicken, it taste good in your mouth until it gets to your stomach. We buy turkeys sometimes. For some reason turkey doesn't digest like chicken. We don't any problems with turkey so far. We haven't eaten any spinach or peanut butter lately. I make my own bread by hand and we try to eat as much vegetables and fruits as we can when we can afford it. I think food industry want us sick so we could use drugs and stay on a vicious cycle. We try to not use drugs as possible. If you look at some of the commercials on drugs and the side effects, you get sicker instead of better.

Join a CSA! (Community Sponsored Agriculture)

The tips above say go without meat one day- Honestly, you can go meatless more than one day per week, try three , then four and then eventually , just special occassions. Tehre are variety of protein sources that are vegetarian such as beans, legumes, tofu, and eggs and they can be utilized in many recipes. Being a lifelong vegetarian, and a Registerd Dietitian, I see people everyday that have hypertension, hicholesterol, diabetes, morbid obesity and notice a trend- 1) overconsumption of meat 2)overconsumption of fast food I am glad there is more awareness in some places about factory farming and processed meats, but there needs to be more action. If everyone stopped etaing meat atleast once a week, not only their health will benefit but the environment will benefit. Learn ways to eat more vegetarian protein sources through online or talk to a registered dietitian. I recommend everyone to read Michael Pollan's books, especially the Omnivore's dilemma and In defense of food.

When you go shopping use biodegradable shopping bags made from canvas, cotton, or even paper. The plastic bags don't biodegrade they photodegrade, meaning when or if they do break down they become microscopic toxins that seep into the ground. For something to photodegrade the environment must be pristine and even with the perfect environment it will take at least 200 years. Just think about what you want future generations to discover in your wake.

GROW YOUR OWN SHARE WITH OTHERS ...and watch as they find they want to do the same.

We visited Parducci WIne Cellars last week and were SO impressed by the commitment to "green"! The investments that this company has made in so many areas is definitely worth the visit, if you're ever in Northern California. They any unlike any other vineyard and I am a dedicated "Parducci" consumer now ! Besides, the taste is spectacular !

I love your tips. Number eight made me feel so good as I work for a company that does just that...Parducci Wine Cellars and Paul Dolan Vineyards,farms organically and bio-dynamically...using biodiesel in our tractors, 100% green power, recyled papers and more...if you want to drink green and out...www.mendocinowineco.com

forget about eating meat once a week.....stop it altogether and become vegan. it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of edible beef.

Cage free and free range eggs and meats are healthier for humans and much kinder to animals. If you can't go veggie go cage free and free range.

Don't buy from hawkers who refuse to tell you the plantation source of the fruits or vegetables.

Life is simple, and the way we eat should be also. Go back to the roots of where we came from. Try to start with at least 50% of your food intake as RAW. After awhile you can go higher. Remember that includes lots of fruits and vegetables, so it isn't that difficult. Unpasteurized milk is also one of the foods that is still alive, full of good bacteria and vitamins. Cheese that comes from raw milk is always a better choice so ask before you buy at any good cheese store, the taste is incredible! Even if you eat meat, try and eat them rare to raw, as long as you know the source where they came from (organic and grass fed). Sashimi is another way. Raw nuts are very nutritious if prepared the correct way, buy them raw, soak them 12 hours, and then dry naturally, the indians can't be wrong, they have been doing this way before we came along. If you go buy these rules your immune system will be boosted at its peak. If you are really into it try a 7 day fruit fast first, WOW, talk about cleansing. Eat the right fats, butter, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil is good, margarine, vegetable, canola oil (man made) isn't. Soy is also something to stay away from after all it is man made (Soy Beans good, Tofu bad). Remember STAY AWAY FROM PROCESSED MAN MADE FOODS! This is poison to your body, nothing but chemicals, sugar and bad fats. Don't forget to exercise, this is also an important part of life, at least 3 hours a week.

As others said, Go Vegan. It's a win win win way to live. We get healthier, the planet gets a rest and the animals can live their own lives. I've been investigating factory farms and slaughterhouses for over 30 years. There's no such thing as humane animal agriculture. The most pain and fear I've ever witnessed was the slaughter of free range pigs. I can still hear their screams. Animal Liberation Victoria is kicking off a 30 Day Vegan Easy Challenge this June, check out our website alv.org.au if you want to give it a go!

Have a reverse osmoisis water purification unit. It even takes out the fluoride, which is a deadly poison. Also, put yogurt or keifer in your diet for the good bacteria. Last but not least if you live very far from the equator, use a good grade of cod liver oil, for the D, EPA and DHA it supplies. We use Carlson's. If cod liver oil smells and tastes rancid, that is because it is. Emulsified cod liver oil has many nasty additives in it. I take two teaspoons a day. Each teasppon contains 400 IU of vitamin D. I also take a two four hundred IU capsules of D. Even the medical profession is realizing our D levels need to be way higher than the 400 IU previously recommended. That is the amount that will prevent rickets in children. Adults and even kids need more than that for optimal health.

Farm your kitchen by learning to produce fermented foods like sauerkraut, shrub, true yogurts and kefirs, true apple ciders, etc. These are easy to make and bring into your body high levels of anti-oxidants, enzymes, and beneficial bacterias that tie us to the web of life. Support mixed-use family farms. The vegetarian/vegan diets are often mono cropped, destroying water systems and valuable wildlife habitat. A well run grass and dirt farm that raises a variety of animals and plant life can clean the water and produce a non-ending supply of topsoil and humus that sequesters carbon dioxide ad infinitum. Read Joel Salatin to understand the old/new ways of farming. Support your local farmers! Seek out forms of medicine that do not require drugs. Many illnesses are caused by life-style factors than the pharmaceutical and food industry want us to know about. Seek out practitioners who can truly address your long term health needs. Educate yourself concerning latest studies on the impact of food, sleep and environment on health. DailyScience.com is a great resource for finding latest peer-reviewed published research.

Get a good water filter. There are tonnes of added things in the water supply such as fluoride, pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs and chlorine. Just look up the health effects of each of these. It does no good drinking lots of water when the water your drinking is making you sick. Here is a little experiment you can do at home...Next time your at the mall buy a couple goldfish. When you get home, put them in a glass of tap water. See how long they live. When you find them floating at the top of the glass dead, ask yourselves this; If tap water can do this to a fish, what could it be doing to me? Think about it. You drink it, you shower in it, you wash your vegetables in it. Showering in it is worse then actually drinking the stuff! Your skin absorbs directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system. Also remember that when you shower your passing up to 25 gallons of chlorinated, fluoridated, drugged up fluid over your body. Not to mention that it becomes a vapour when heated, therefore your also inhaling it! Unless of course you like taking cold showers. So what can you do about it? Get a good water filter. You can buy a variety of good systems. The Berky systems are top notch. Also the Ecolo Blue is pretty neat, turning air into drinkable water. Be sure to reminerilize your drinking water if you are using atmospheric water generator, or reverse osmosis systems. You can do this with a little bit of himalayan pink salt. Hope this was informative and lets all drink to our health!

My hobby for three years I have ranged several cattle on 10 acres with trees, grass and pond. These are for personal consumption and forsome friends and family clients. All natural, grass and hay fed, no vacinations any other thing enters the animals. I find myself being more of a grass and land manager for the land to thrive and support the animals. The families who purchase 1/2 a steer at a time like to know everything from start to finish is local, it taste better and is hormone fee. I suggest you Google natural food for your area and take the leap and buy local.

Look around, find your local farmer. Check out the farm. If you approve of their farming ways support them and you by purchasing anything you can't grow yourself. This makes you part of the farm and totally in controll of the foods you and your family eat.

Urge Congress to provide incentives for public schools and hospitals to provide organic, locally-sourced meals (i.e. within 100 miles) - this would help revitalize regional economies and would be a great step toward making our food system sustainable.

By a stainless steel water bottle and bring it with you everywhere, esp. on trips. You will not need to buy bottled water which will save you money, avoid toxic chemicals in plastic bottles, and reduce waste.

Go vegan! It's the best thing you can do for yourself, the environment and the animals!

Eat and grow your oun sprouts ,i´ts the simple way to get fresh "newborn" light energy .! raw food is carrying all the enzymes that keeps you´r body´s synergetic processes in optimal mode, enzymes dies at 60 degres C.! With love Alex, Denmark.

By your meat from local producers that practice free range, organic and grass fed livestock production. It's better for you, the animals and the environment.

Become vegan!

Keep in mind, that "low fat"-food often contains a multiple of sugar! Read the labels! Greetings from Germany! ;)

Eat fresh fruits & vegetables every day! Also hard cheese, dairies and cereals. I have no place at home to grow my own vegetables, but my father does and it's great! Anyway, here in Argentina we have many cheap groceries where you can get fresh fruits & vegetables and even though we should eat less meat, we are not so used to eating at Mc Donalds or Burger King, although there are plenty of them here. I guess the last time I had a hamburger was about a year ago or more, it left me a strong smell in my hands & it took my stomach more time than regular beef to digest it... These days I've been considering leaving meat at all, regards!!!

One of the best ways to improve one's health and have a more sustainable diet is by going vegetarian, or even better, vegan. A vegan diet provides all the nutrients needed, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in animal flesh, eggs, and dairy products. Also, animal agriculture generates 18% of greenhouse gas, more than all transportation vehicles combined. For every 1/4 pound of beef produced, approximately 67 square feet of rainforest is cut down. It takes over 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. Thus, you save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year. For more information, check out the chapter 'Switch to a Meatless Diet' of the book 'Building an Ark: 101 Solutions to Animal Suffering', by Ethan Smith with Guy Dauncey, forward by Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, which can be downloaded online for free at: http://www.earthfuture.com/ark

Cook, cook, cook! Not only you will feed yourself some lovely food, know what you eat, have some fun being creative, but you will also be attractive to others as you can treat them to your recipes! Cooking some simple, lovely fresh food with healthy local ingredients is the way to go :) And that avoids nasty packaging too!

Keep chickens, in the city! They don't take much time or space and it's fun!

Compost your vegetable scraps. You never know when you'll get a surprise. We had a zucchini plant appear early this summer from the compost pile, and it produced bushels of zucchini. I made several vegetarian meals using the "free" food source, and it is still feeding us into the fall. We do eat meat, fish, and poultry, but veggies make up the bulk of our meals. Our garden is mainly comprised of flowers, but we do have mint growing that I dry for tea, and we had 6 cherry tomatoe plants that gave us a wonderful salad complement all summer. We also have a rasberry bush. I have a vegetarian friend who is always after me about the inhumane treatment of animals meant for slaughter. After browsing your site, I hope the folks in California vote for Proposition 2 for the more humane treatment of animals. We can only hope that Americans will wake up and demand that our food supply be monitored more closely so that greedy corporations do not infuse the market with food that endangers our health.

Pick by color. The brightest, darkest, most saturated NATURAL colors you can find. Red, orange, deep green, yellow, purple. . .

Buy local honey! Small-scale beekeeping protects the health of bees and decreases the stressful conditions that may lead to Colony Collapse Disorder. In addition to having it's own distinct delicious flavor, local honey can boost your immune system, especially if you have allergies. Buying honey harvested close to home is good for the bees, the local economy and agriculture and you! Learn more by watching Every Third Bite: http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/8/every_third_bite/

We have a community garden and it's so wonderful to walk to the garden and pick the veggies that you want to eat that night. If we do not grow a veggie we want we stop by all the driveway stands in our area to put money in the cup and take our selection. We also do all of our produce (off season - I live in NH) at the local farm. I don't think people realize what local farms have available to them. One of my favorite things to get is fresh peanut butter and fresh orange juice - yes it costs a little more but the taste is outstanding. You see signs for local eggs and you just pull in their driveway and meets some very interesting people and get eggs right from the chicken. Taking the time to stop in on these places is so rewarding not only for the food but for the people you meet. We also go fishing and there is nothing better than fresh haddock caught by you or someone in your family. I work full time, so does my husband our teenage son is very active in sports so if we have time to do this everyone does... try it you will like it and as the bumper sticker say buy local produce or watch the house grow.

go vegetarian! it's one of the best ways to reduce your carbon emissions and improve your health.

Plan ahead when you're traveling or on the go, bring snacks or pack a lunch, makes it easier to avoid fast food.

Seems simple enough, but if you have some space plant a garden! It's an easy way to learn where your food comes from, control what goes in to the food (or not into the food - keepin' it organic), and to have access to fresh herbs or veggies. You don't need a big yard or any yard at all: some herbs grow better inside (think conveniently-next-to-the-stove), you can grow trellising veggies on a small doorstep or balcony, or you can pot a small fruit tree. We have a lime tree in an 18" pot that makes perfect little limes year round. They're great for marinades or cold cervezas! Also, we use the potting soil as a sort of mini compost for other fruit peels and food scraps to keep them out of landfills and pesticides out of our beer limes.