Hybrid cars. Organic farms. Programmable thermostats. Reusable shopping bags. Slowly and surely, sustainability is becoming more of a priority in our lives. But is your diet actually causing global warming?

The Bon Appetit Management Company has introduced the Eat Low Carbon Diet Calculator, allowing you to analyze your daily diet in relation to carbon emissions created by your meals.

Frankly, a side of carbon with my meal doesn’t seem to appetizing.

I set out, smugly implanting my daily eats into the supplied frying pan, knowing my vegan diet will be low on the scale. As I dragged hot house vegetables into the pan, my smirk ceased as the number shot up. You don’t eat hot house in the summer, though, I justified. It’s not YOUR fault it’s February and nothing is in season. When I chose tropical fruits – thinking of my daily banana – it shot up further. But that’s silly! I reasoned. We can’t grow bananas here!

After inputting my range of makeshift menus, I was a slightly saddened that I wasn’t as sustainable as I thought. At around 1000, it wasn’t too bad, but I’m convinced if I did this again with my garden and local farmer’s market supplying my feast of fresh produce, then I’d be golden. I hope.

So what can you do to adapt your diet to Low-Carbon?

• Minimize packaging: you’ve probably heard “shop the perimeter of the grocery store.” These are fresh, whole foods, and the healthiest for your diet.
• Don’t let foods expire: I can’t imagine going grocery shopping only once a week, my produce lasts a few days then I replenish the load. If you have a load of veggies slowly expiring, make a quick, hearty vegetable soup.
• Eat in season and eat local: once you head in this direction, you’ll never head back. Foods are far better than imported fare when grown in season and close to home. Apricots, for example, I eat for about 2 months a year. Otherwise, they are terrible. You never know what you’re missing until you try them.
• Mooooove towards alternative proteins: Out of all meats, beef contributes the most to greenhouse gases – about 18%. Enjoy chicken and local fish, and legumes and soy products.

The website recommends reducing your carbon points at about 25%. Tweaking your diet by simply using less waste and buying local are two of the easiest steps in this direction.

With over 40 peer-reviewed papers analyzed for this project, it’s a legitimate way to explore the way that you eat.

High Carbon Choices
Meat and dairy are higher in carbon because the animals that produce them naturally emit methane. Out of season produce, especially those shipped by air, also are high on the scale. For the most part, so are hot-house grown items. Fish, too, are often brought in from far distances. In some areas, it would be difficult to cut out all of these items in the winter, but being mindful of your choices is a great start.

Low Carbon Choices
Fruits and vegetables, local or travelled the least distance possible, are generally available, more so during in-season months. Chicken produces less carbon compared to beef. And the least processed foods (IE not in packaging) are the best options.

So what do you do if breakfast was packaged cereal dairy-based milk, and blueberries from Chile, followed by lunch of a hot-house built salad with a slew of scallops shipped from afar? And dinner, you had planned, was a huge slab of beef with a tropical fruit salsa and Uncle Ben’s prepacked flavoured rice?

Opt, then, for exploring alternative milks, a fruit in season (oranges and grapefruits are perfect, now). Try whole oats or buckwheat, slow cooked on the stove. Lunch, swap your scallops for locally raised fish. Save your steak, but steam your own rice with herbs, and an in-season squash.

To count your own carbon emissions contributed by your meals, visit EatLowCarbon.org.

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