Eat This, Not That, in 2010

So you've begun your New Year's resolution list. Any of this sound familiar?

"This year, I resolve to never be late."
"This year, I resolve to exercise more."
"This year, I resolve to (insert anything about dieting, weight loss or eating right here)."

Since many a New Year's resolution includes something about dieting, we took note of Change.org's recent post on their Sustainable Foods blog: 5 Foods You Should Avoid in 2010. But this list doesn't simply offer avoidance suggestions to improve your body. By making better substitutions, you'll help put our global body on a much-needed diet, rejecting some of the junk currently gumming up the works.

Below, a rundown of Sustainable Foods' great post, along with our substitution suggestions.

PROBLEM: "Factory-farmed" meat
If you caught the documentary Food, Inc. this year, you're already familiar with the conditions cows, chickens and pigs endure to provide meat for companies like Tyson, Hillshire Farm, and Smithfield. In a word, they are...horrifying. Take corn-fed cows, who must stand in their own manure. Factory farms insist on feeding cows corn because it is cheap, an industry supported in the U.S. by huge government subsidies. Cows' digestive systems are geared for grass, and grass waste fertilizes the ground. Corn unfortunately does no such thing, so having exited the cow's body, there's no place for waste to go for in but in the cow's roaming grounds. The result? Sick cows, and in turn, sick humans.

To undercut the possibility of illness, a typical factory farm feeds its animals enormous amounts of antibiotics, which admittedly kills some diseases, but ends up conditioning ever more deadly strands of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. The problem has gotten so bad, that according to the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, roughly 76 million Americans are sickened by the food they eat each year. That's about one quarter of our whole country.

SOLUTION: Far safer (not to mention less carbon-emission producing) options abound if you cross factory-farmed meat off your grocery list. First, make a commitment to organic, grass-fed beef.

WATCH VIDEO: Why Grass-Fed Beef?

You can find this type of beef at a variety of natural grocers, or at your closest farmers' market. Speaking of farmers' markets, have you been to one yet? If you feel intimidated, don't worry: you're not alone. Check out this quick primer to help you navigate things more effectively.

WATCH VIDEO: Farmers' Market Shopping

Before making a meat selection, get to know the rancher who raised that cow, chicken, or pig. Ask him or her about the animal's living conditions, if it was fed any antibiotics or growth hormones, and what kind of food it ate.
Finally, if you live in a locale that offers it, try bison to make your next burger.

PROBLEM: Anything on a Seafood Watch List
This includes some pretty standard restaurant (and even grocery store) fare, according to the list on Seafood Watch. Oysters? Good. King Crab? Avoid. Why? They are currently harvested in ways that hurt other marine life or the environment. Sustainable Foods wisely points out that "nearly two-thirds of all ocean species are overfished and that -- if current consumption trends continue -- the populations of all wild fish species currently caught could collapse before 2050." Yikes.

SOLUTION: For starters, download and print a Seafood Watch Pocket Guide, customizable to your region. Next, get to know the seafoods that, for now, should be avoided until further notice.

Not ready to give up your sushi? You don't have to! Embrace sustainable sushi, and learn how to pick out the best choices from your sushi menu.

PROBLEM: Anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Imagine a catheter inserted into your veins, and instead of life-supporting medicine, it shoots out fat cells. That's essentially what HFCS does, given its propensity to grow fat cells around vital organs. This pernicious sweetener, a byproduct of corn and extremely cheap to make, is found in everything from soda to bread, and is a large factor in our country's quickly rising rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, both in children and adults. In a recent UC Davis study cited by Sustainable Foods, volunteers who ate a diet with high levels of fructose for 10 weeks grew new fat cells around their hearts, livers and other digestive organs, and developed symptoms of impaired food-processing associated with diabetes and heart disease. The control group on the same diet, but consuming glucose sugar instead of fructose, did not display these symptoms.

SOLUTION: Read your food labels. HFCS is common in foods where you'd suspect sweeteners, like cookies and candy, but also shows up in breakfast cereals, chips, salad dressings, and sauces. StopHFCS.com keeps a running list of grocery store violators, which lists more than a few innocent-looking products (Grape Nuts cereal, anyone?).

If you crave sweets, recipes for organic desserts abound here on Planet Green. Bake up a mouth-watering dark chocolate cake, skip the storebought thin mints and make your own homemade version, or share a batch of homemade, vegan chocolate chip cookies with friends.

Note that the main sweetener in these recipes range from raw sugar to old-fashioned table sugar, but even the latter is ten times better for you than lab-produced HFCS.

PROBLEM: Foie Gras
It's a coveted dish for foodies everywhere, but the fact remains: Foie gras is fattened duck or goose liver made by force-feeding the birds until they nearly explode. Last May, Costco dropped the stuff from their online inventory, and numerous foie gras protest communities exist the world over (here in Austin, we have our own No Foie Gras protest group).

While most of the items on this list are whole categories of stuff leading to unsustainable food practices, this food item is singled out, and for good reason.

SOLUTION: Get involved. No food substitutions here, just a call to action: Check out NoFoieGras.org for ideas on how, and consider supporting legislation that bans the sale of foie gras. While you're at it, read Jonathan Safran Foer's interview with Planet Green about ethical eating.

PROBLEM: Out-of-season produce
The produce section at a typical grocery store is sweetly deceptive: Thanks to globalization, all fruits and vegetables are available year-round, making it hard to figure out what's actually seasonal in your corner of the world. As Sustainable Foods points out, the average American foodstuff travels 1,500 hundred miles from farm to fork, and 80% of the energy used in the U.S. food system is spent on processing, transporting, storing and preparing food. This is convenient for our salads, but inconvenient for global warming. By reducing your "food miles," you'll not only help the planet, you'll help your taste buds get to know how delicious things taste when they're fresh.

SOLUTION: Head out to the farmers market for local and regional produce fare, or join a community garden. If no community gardens exist where you live, you could always start a small one of your own, or create a small personal garden and invite friends over for a seed swap.

Thanks to Sustainable Foods for this list of edibles-to-avoid! Here's to a 2010 marked by food choices you can feel good about.