healthy or unhealthy food choices, rural-urban disparity A country is nothing more than an illusion, as it is a continuum of how far people live from access to food.
According to a recent study in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, only 0.2% of New Zealand’s total land area is used. grow vegetables It’s a country with plenty of fast food and takeaway options and not a growing number of health food stores.
While metropolitan areas are more likely to purchase healthy foods in stores, people living in rural areas of Aotearoa healthier dietbecause they grew their own vegetables .
But vegetable grower Kate Parker, who lives on a quarter-acre plot in Waitara, said growing 90 percent of the fruits and vegetables her family eats isn’t difficult.
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The Parker family lived in a small urban area with a garden of more than 20 fruit trees and dozens of vegetables.
Three years ago, they wanted to save money when they moved 13 miles east of New Plymouth’s western suburbs with their new baby. GROW A SUSTAINABLE GARDEN.
Today, they go to the supermarket only once every two weeks to freeze, dehydrate, and store produce to eat it in the off-season.
“It has had a huge impact on our food budget. We eat vegetarian six days a week and then cook meat once. It was a game changer.
“The biggest thing is trying to teach my daughter where food comes from and how to grow her own food. I’m just trying to make better soil and leave the world a better place for her.” ”
Andy Macdonald/staff
Kate Parker says growing vegetables can teach her daughter where food comes from.
Vegetable gardens were increasing in urban and rural areas, but the number of fast food restaurants still kept the kiwi diet poor. A third of the country’s population is obese.
Professor Emeritus of AUT Nutrition Elaine Rush Urban areas have healthier food options, and rural stores that sell food have a “considerable responsibility,” it said.
“Usually they’re the only ones selling food in the area,” she said.
“So they don’t just serve ice cream and ice blocks, they also serve the necessities of life.”
Highly processed, delicious and inexpensive food options were the most accessible, but did not improve health.
“If you start eating a bag of potato chips, you can’t stop at 5 o’clock, can you?”
Andy Macdonald/staff
Kate Parker’s family eats vegetables six nights a week and cooks meat only one night.
Rush called for planning around food produced in Aotearoa.
“At the moment, it seems that the focus is on producing food for export and making money.
“But we also need to focus on producing affordable food in New Zealand for New Zealanders and making sure they have access to it.”
With socioeconomic factors now driving people’s dietary choices rather than personal choices, kiwis of the future had to look for healthier, less refined foods.
In Karamea, a 90-minute drive from Westport, Abilene Chalmers has spent the past 18 years growing a “food forest” to feed her family.
She felt very strongly that fast food restaurants selling “junk food” were affecting the population of the country.
Andy Macdonald/staff
Kate Parker created a lush garden at her Waitara home.
“I definitely don’t want to eat that kind of thing.”
Chalmers says you don’t need a lot of space to grow “your own food,” and is frustrated by talk that downplays having a garden as something that doesn’t affect a family’s diet or economy.
“People think they have to rely on junk food because they can’t afford better options.
“It’s a real shame that there are so many healthier and more affordable options, like growing your own.”
