What are the benefits of eating locally grown food?

Local foods help preserve farmland and green spaces. Local foods support your community's economy. Local foods create a sense of community. The local buying movement has grown tremendously in recent years and, with good reason, the benefits of eating local food are abundant.

From nutrition to environmental and community reasons, it is now more important than ever to support local farmers. Here are 8 benefits of eating local food. Local food is fresher, tastes better and is likely to be more nutritious. At a farmers' market, most of the local produce has been picked in the last 24 hours, ensuring that they are ripe and at their maximum nutrient density.

By contrast, most supermarket products were picked days or weeks before reaching the supermarket shelf. As soon as a food is harvested, its nutrient content begins to deteriorate, specifically vitamins C, E, A and some B. Of course, the products that have traveled still have nutritional value, but the fresher the fruit or vegetable, the more nutrient-dense it will be. So, while apples that arrive by plane from Argentina may look great on the shelves of grocery stores, those from the local farm are much fresher and better for you.

By comparison, local foods are healthier because they are only transported short distances and are not exposed to chemicals, gases or waxes that are used to preserve food for long-distance transport. Although I wasn't always a fan of local shopping and visits to the farmer's market, the more I learned about nutrition and the more I understood how the foods I eat affect my body, the more I really cared about where they came from and how they reached my plate. The benefits of eating local food are endless, and the best of them is the connection it provides to your food. The more you eat locally, the more you can reconnect with food and recognize the importance of real foods and the impact they have on your body.

This type of food consumption is the basis of the popular 100 mile diet, which promotes the purchase and consumption of food grown, manufactured, or produced within 100 miles of the consumer's home. Locally grown food can be found at farmers' markets, roadside farm stands, food farms where you can pick up your own food, and through community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs.