Grocery store vs Farmers Market Produce–Who wins the battle for the best, freshest, and most budget-friendly food?

Which would you rather go with? 

A body filled with quality and healthy food that needs no doctor or a body filled with mass produced food that is devoid of nutrients and needs frequent trips to the doctor to fix your damaged body?

The benefits of eating organic and locally grown produce cannot be overstated. They are great for the body and contain lots of fresh nutrients directly from the source. 

Fresh Farm produce

While we want to eat healthy, we also have to be aware of the kind of food we call healthy.

Most produces are not as healthy or organic as they once were.

Modern intensive farming methods can be harmful; big-scale, industrial agriculture relies on chemicals to increase crop yields. How healthy is that? This is why the rate of cancer and disease is on the rise.

Also before this produce that has already been chemically grown gets to the market, food preservatives will be added to it to prolong its shelf life.

Preservatives are the substances that prolong the shelf life of food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals by preventing their spoilage.  There has been an increase in recent decades in the consumption of foods with high preservative content that can do more harm than good.

And there’s another concern:

Global supply chains bring food from remote farms, thousands of miles away, right to the grocery store on your doorstep. But how fresh is this produce? 

How fresh is the product actually…losing nutrients from being transported from around the globe for several days or months before getting to your community. Nutrients begin to break down within hours after picking from the farm, and this process never really stops. 

Instead of getting whole food ingredients from the grocery store, it is advisable to get locally produced food from the local farmers market. Your body will thank you.

What are locally produced foods and farmer’s market?

(Locally grown produce refers to fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other food products cultivated and harvested near where they are sold and consumed. This emphasizes shortening the distance between the farm and the table. 

Locally grown food is just what it sounds like--food which is grown near where you live.  

Farmers market is a market at which local farmers sell their agricultural products directly to consumers. It allows consumers the opportunity to have access to locally grown, farm-fresh produce.

Farmer's market

Benefits of getting food produce at the farmers market

1. Taste Real Flavors

The fruits and vegetables you buy at the farmers market are the freshest and tastiest available. Fruits are allowed to ripen fully in the field and are brought directly to you—no long-distance shipping, no gassing to simulate the ripening process, no sitting for weeks in storage. This food is as real as it gets—fresh from the farm.

2. Lesser Risk of getting Chemically preserved Food

Much food found in grocery stores is highly processed and grown using pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and genetic modification. Some of it has been irradiated, waxed, or gassed in transit. These practices may have negative effects on human health. In contrast, most food found at the farmers market is minimally processed, and many of our farmers go to great lengths to grow the most nutritious produce possible by using sustainable techniques, picking produce right before the market, and growing heirloom varieties.

3. Local food has more nutrients. 

Local food has a shorter time between harvest and your table, and it is less likely that the nutrient value has decreased. Food imported from far-away states and countries is often older, has traveled and sits in distribution centers before it gets to your store

4. Local growers can tell you how the food was grown. 

You can ask what practices they use to raise and harvest the crops. When you know where your food comes from and who grew it, you know a lot more about that food.

The scope of locally grown food can vary depending on geography. It generally implies produce that has traveled a relatively short distance from origin to consumer. Proximity ensures fresher, more flavorful, and often more nutrient-rich food. These benefits result from the produce spending far less time in transit and storage.

Key takeaways 

Organic food is definitely the way to go. Not only is it free from pesticides, but it carries more nutrients. It can be a little more expensive, sure. But whom would you rather pay – a farmer who works hard to produce quality, healthy food, or a doctor who will have to fix your damaged body if you eat mass-produced food?

If you need help planning a healthy diet or starting your fitness journey, book a free consultation with me

Click the learn more button below;

Or email me on hello@gbemigiwa.com

Stay tuned for more mind blowing article on living a healthy lifestyle.

Gbemi Giwa.