Labels on bottles of vitamin pills frequently include the note 'Not intended as a substitute for a balanced diet'. Heath authorities worldwide now recommend that we eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for their vitamin and mineral contents, others emphasise that these are best if fresh and grown ecologically/organically without the use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides. The Slow Food movement recommends that we should try and eat local produce to sustain the local economy.
Such produce is not always easy to buy or is expensive due to today’s oil-based, long-distance distribution systems by air or road transport, and packaging materials. So why not grow your own in containers on apartment terraces, in raised beds in small gardens, in the garden or if convenient an allotment? The great advantages are that you can focus on growing those fruits and vegetables with the greatest beneficial vitamin and mineral contents and harvest each day just what is required for each meal or day.
The WDDTY chart 'Guide to the healthiest foods' is a useful indicator of this.
Following the traditional Mediterranean Diet, we include a selection of fresh home-grown antioxidant/vitamin/mineral-rich foods such as dark green spinach and dandelion leaves, sprouting broccoli, tomatoes, nasturtium flowers and leaves, garlic, onions, tomatoes, carrots in all meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner - and, when walking the mountains or playing tennis, we enjoy our own home dried unadulterated fruit, vegetables and nuts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Clodagh and *** Handscombe are practical gardeners and authors living healthily from their holistic garden in Spain. Their books include 'Growing healthy fruit in Spain' and 'Growing healthy vegetables in Spain' (Santana Books). Many of the practical ideas are applicable worldwide.
©Clodagh and *** Handscombe www.yourgardeninspain.com October 2008.