Supporting your local shops is very satisfying and at times a cost-effective way to buy your groceries and give back to your local community. All too often small family shops can be put out of business by large-chain supermarkets selling too much big-brand produce. Now, what if your diet allowed you to shop locally a lot more easily? What if you could improve your health and eat good food, whilst helping your local shops? It’s probably easier than you think. But what if you also know that eating a certain diet of foods also helped your hair health as well? A game-changer no doubt, yes?
Best foods to get locally
Firstly, if you’re shopping local you are looking for 4 shops specifically. A butcher. A baker. A greengrocer. A fishmonger. Between these shops, you can buy almost all you need to make some of the best meals you could ever want, all the while helping local shop owners. Don’t forget to check out your local food and farmers’ markets too.
If you want to align your diet to match then it would be highly recommended you look into the Mediterranean diet.
What is the Mediterranean diet?
Originating from areas around the Mediterranean (obviously) the diet covers a wide variety of food. From fresh vegetables to fish and whole wheat bread, the Mediterranean diet lets you eat good food while helping you to support your local shops easily. By eating plenty of fish you can support your local fishmonger and support your greengrocer by buying vegetables as well. Finished there? Head to the baker for your wholewheat bread. There are plenty of wonderful and different recipes to try out there, much like this Baba Ganoush you can find on this website. It may be originally from the middle east but it is Mediterranean diet-friendly and again uses veggies and food items that you can source from your local shops.
What do you eat?
To start with you eat almost everything with a healthy amount of olive oil, along with plenty of fresh fish, vegetables, and whole grains. You’ll be running through tomatoes, potatoes, fish of all kinds, dairy, poultry, red meat every now and again, and most importantly, a healthy amount of red wine. You’ll certainly be hitting your 5 a day and more! The bulk of your food will be vegetables and fish meals, with red meat once a week at most. Mixing these with whole grains and some dairy and you have a very well-rounded and healthy diet that provides you with so many options for your meals.
The main ingredient though in all of this diet is an abundance of olive oil. And even though it is great for cooking it has an extra area of the body it can work on as well if you’re willing to try it. Can you guess what it is? It’s your hair!
Olive oil and your hair
In recent times many celebrities and well-known hairstylists have been preaching the qualities of olive oil for your hair. By adding a bit of it to your conditioner or soap and massaging it through your hair you can help moisturize it even more than normal, as well as add an extra layer of shine to it. Plus with the rest of the food, you’ll be eating all of the nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants that will massively contribute to your hair health as well. You can also massage a small amount into your hair (literally a teaspoon) about 30 minutes before you wash it. Once cleaning, make sure to wash it out to prevent it from hindering rather than helping your hair health. So not only do you get a healthy diet, you get to shop locally and use that food to improve your hair health as well. That’s a win, win, win.
Don’t forget that a diet such as this also provides you with options left and right for eating your daily dose of fruit and vegetables. Remember that these provide you twitch the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants needed to maintain healthy skin, nails, and hair. It also helps protect your heart and lower the risk of heart issues in the future. At least according to a good number of studies anyway.
