Composting & Nutrition

Happy MORSELICIOUS Monday in June!

Special thanks to Debra Atlas, for sharing her post on the health benefits and ease of composting, something most of us can do in our own backyards, just like Dorothy.  Two morsel points if you get my reference. 🙂 Hint: ruby red_________.

Speaking of backyards, I recently taught a Morselicious Healthy Cooking Class to a private group in someone’s home and they had a vegetable garden and compost in theirs.  Such a treat and I invite you to contact me for info on my cooking and group workshops. Enjoy the beginning of summer and have a Morselicious Monday!

Good health starts with healthy food.

Living a healthy lifestyle and being healthy encompasses factors like regular exercise and reducing stress. But it all starts with the quality of the food we eat.

Dr. Alexis Carrel, a 1912 Nobel Prize-winning French surgeon and biologist, said “Minerals in the soil control the metabolism of plants, animals and man. All of life will be either healthy or unhealthy according to the fertility of the soil.”

According to a report –  “Food grown in nutrient deficient soil lacks the nutrients needed to keep people healthy. Studies reveal that the nutritional values in food have declined significantly over the past 70 years.”

The reason for this significant loss is due to the depletion of our soil from the overuse of chemical fertilizers and the demand for increased crop yield without nurturing the soil.

Soil scientist Paul Hepperly, PhD. former Research Director with the Rodale Institute, says the overuse of toxic chemicals -including glyphosate, a main chemical in Round-up – has created severe micronutrient deficiencies in the soil.

“Good soil for plants is crucial for the production of good quality foods,” said Dr. Warren Porter, University of Wisconsin.

We need vitamins and minerals to maintain good health.

Despite what advertisers would have us believe, vitamins are organic compounds found in plants and animals. Minerals are inorganic compounds that come from the earth.

Thankfully, as our love of home gardening has increased, so has the ability to reverse the decline in our food’s nutritional values. The opportunity to grow truly healthy food depends on recognizing that soil is a living organism that needs to be fed.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to use good quality compost.

Composting food scraps along with green waste is an easy way to ensure your homegrown food has the nutrients your body needs. Also, adding good quality compost to your garden will cut down on the amount of water you’ll need to use.

In this time of drought, that’s a terrific by-product.

Don’t think you have the space to raise your own food?

Think again. If you have a small balcony that gets sunshine, add a few large pots filled with some organic veggie plants, good soil and quality compost, all of which are available at your local nursery or hardware store.

Or pick up a couple of good size planter boxes and try your hand at growing lettuce and fresh herbs. The fun you’ll have in growing and harvesting your own food may make you a home gardener forever. And you’ll know that the food you’re growing is perhaps ten times more nutritious than what you would have purchased at your local supermarket.

Good nutrition doesn’t have to come from taking lots of supplements.

It can start right in our backyards.

Debra Atlas is a freelance journalist, newspaper columnist, green business practice consultant, professional blogger and speaker. Her work focuses on critical environmental issues and the newest green trends and innovations. She can be reached via her blog at www.Envirothink.wordpress.com or at [email protected].