Lexington, KY - Proper nutrition is an important component to our physical health. All the exercise in the world will not make up for poor nutritional habits.
Summer is a great time to discuss nutrition. The plethora of healthy foods that are available during this time of year makes it easy to start incorporating them into your diet. Lexington has one of the premier farmers market communities in the country, due to the abundant variety of fruits and vegetables that can be grown within 100 miles of Lexington.
If you want to make real and lasting improvements to your diet and health, then you should look at using local farmers markets as a way of life and not just an occasional "field trip" to kill a weekend morning. Visit www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.com and www.bluegrassfarmersmarket.org for information about the two series of local farmers markets.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs are also an excellent option when trying to incorporate locally grown food into your diet on a consistent basis. A CSA farm is one in which the farmers sell shares of their crop to individuals, organizations or businesses for a fixed price, which usually comes in the form of a basket of food every week (or every other week) for the duration of the season. The website www.localharvest.org is an excellent national database to find regional CSAs that service the Lexington area.
Once you have decided if you will be a farmers market shopper or a CSA share owner, next you have to learn how to take advantage of what is being offered to you from the farmers. I like utilizing a CSA program because it introduces me to new and different items on a weekly basis. The non-traditional items you receive in your basket, like sorrel, kohlrabi, golden beets and Asian greens - to name a few - will give you an opportunity to learn new recipes and incorporate new foods into your diet.
If you get a CSA share or buy produce at a farmers market on a regular basis from April through October, you will start to learn the rhythm of the growing season. You will learn that lettuces, broccoli, onions and garlic come in the early spring and then fade; peas and carrots, as well as strawberries and blueberries, move in as spring turns to summer, then the beans, squash, tomatoes and corn and blackberries dominate. With late summer and fall come a whole new slew of choices. Of course there are many more items than I mentioned here, but the point is that not all things are available all the time. If you want to learn to be a local eater, then you have to learn what you have available at what times of the year and plan accordingly.
Don't forget about the various meat and eggs that are raised by your local farmers, too. These meats are usually "ASH" free, meaning no anti-biotics, steroids or hormones have been used. They are delicious and much healthier than what you get from a mass production farm, and these farms are usually much more considerate to the animals' well being. So if the humane treatment of animals is any concern of yours, then eating locally raised meat and eggs is for you.