For me, my favorite food isn't an actual type of food like pasta, eggs, steak and potatoes. It's more involved than that. It has a message attached to it.

I love local, organic food that is made naturally. I can find it at the farmers market, and meet the people that actually grew it. It has a short list of ingredients, and tastes more delicious than anything you can find at the grocery store.

There are so many reasons I love this kind of food. It makes me feel good when I eat it, and doesn't leave me asking for more once it's gone. I know it has been grown in a sustainable fashion, allowing me to effectively "vote with my fork." It helps my local economy, helping the people who grew my food to make a living off my purchase. And it doesn't leave me feeling sick, and actually contributes toward my health and well being. 

This food isn't hard to find, but it does take some awareness and effort in order to. Here are some questions I ask myself to help me decide if a food I'm buying is up to my standard or not:

1. What are the ingredients?

This is one of the most basic questions you can ask yourself when looking at buying food. When you ask yourself this question, you're learning a lot about the food you're looking at. If you see any ingredients that you don't know or recognize, you probably shouldn't be eating that food. This is because those unrecognizable ingredients are most likely derived from questionable ingredients which are not so great for your body. Furthermore, if the list of ingredients is long, the food is most likely highly processed. Processed foods are harder for your body to digest, so it's important to read the labels on the food you're buying and notice these things. The less ingredients in a food you are purchasing, the better off it is for you overall.

2. Where does the food come from?

Are you buying an organic tomato from a local farm or are you buying a conventional tomato exported from a foreign country to America? This makes a huge difference in the nutritional value and toxicity of a food. Knowing where your food is grown determines a lot about that food: whether it's covered in pesticides, if it's nutritionally dense, if it's fresh, if you need to wash it before eating or not, if it's GMO or not, etc.

3. How does it make me feel?

I learned this one from a good friend. This is probably the most important question to ask yourself when buying your food. You may be purchasing the most healthy food in the world, but if it doesn't actually make your body feel good when you eat it, there's no point in purchasing it. Same goes with less healthy food, noticing how it makes you feel can quickly help you shift away from eating it in the future. 

I have begun to notice the differences in how I feel after eating most of my meals. It has significantly changed the way I purchase food and eat overall. Once an avid cheese connoisseur, I have noticed that when I eat too much of it (or don't have access to a high quality product) my body feels heavier and more sluggish. As a result, I have cut down my cheese intake by over 50% and switched over to eating cashew cheese when I have cheese cravings. This is just one example, but when you apply this principle to all of the food you are eating, it will create significant change for your health and prosperity.

To me, food is a form of preventative healthcare. This in itself is against the norm, and most of the food industry doesn't want us to realize this. I know that for myself eating organic, local food is a part of how I contribute social justice to the world. I also know that it's great for my overall health. I appreciate the ease at which I can be a part of the food movement. I have real consumer power, allowing me to change the food system from the bottom to the top.