How Canning Can Help Meet Health Goals
Every year around this time we have the opportunity to focus more intently on our New Year’s resolutions. For many people, these resolutions revolve around health and fitness.
Having goals, especially ones related to health, is a great way to increase activity, improve mindset, and create a sense of accomplishment. You can do this through fitness, diet, or all of the above, but oftentimes the difficulty lies in the details.
Eating right is as difficult as ever, but growing and canning your own produce gives you more control and can help you feel confident in your food’s nutritional value. Two ways that canning can do this is through supply chain independence, and sustainability.
Supply Chain Independence
Knowing where your food comes from is an essential part of meeting health goals. If you grow your own produce then the answer is simple, your veggies and fruits come straight from your own backyard. However, for many health conscious individuals, tracking food from the vine to your belly can be difficult. Besides shopping at a farmers market or the local section of your grocery store, many fruits and vegetables are coming from outside the country or state due to differing climates. This produce must then travel hundreds of miles to your local grocery store – sometimes weeks after having been harvested. The result? Many items are not properly ripened and have reduced freshness due to travel.
Harvesting and canning the produce yourself gets around a lot of these problems by shortening the supply chain to the ground > your shelf > your stomach.
Control & Sustainability
Fresh food gets all the attention, but canned food deserves just as much praise. The canning technique, which has been used to preserve food for generations, maintains most nutrients until consumed – reducing food and packaging waste while also providing healthy and easy options for dinner.
Growing and canning your own produce not only frees you from relying on commercially grown foods, it enables you to control the environment in which your produce is grown and stored. Using glass jars guarantees that your foods are kept fresh and healthy.
In addition, eating what you’ve canned allows you to have more control over your eating habits. Canning will guide you towards snacking on fruits and veggies, and away from less healthy options. It can help bring your health goals within sight!
Check out the Mrs. Wages® FAQ page for tips on canning, recipes, and safety.
