Come clean

DETOX FROM...

...your take-out diet

Shake down the supermarket
Personal nutrition and fitness instructor Laura Miranda (stronghealthywoman.com) gives monthly tours of Tribeca Whole Foods for $30. “Literally showing people food in their faces and putting it in their cart seems to be most effective,” she says. She breaks a healthy meal into its components, and explains why 2 percent yogurt is actually better for you than fat-free (the latter has shinola added to it to make it taste better). “I try to get people to start reading ingredients.” Stick to the store’s perimeter, she recommends—the junk is in the middle. And skip the booze, juice and frozen “healthy” meals sections. Dietician Lynn Goldstein (youarewhatyoueat.com) will tour your home grocery store for $50 a head for a group of three or more. “Buying seasonal, local produce means you’ll be getting fresher food,” she says. Not ready to give up the goods? See page 17.

Cut out the middleman
Through a program called Just Food (justfood.org, 212-645-9880), $400–$500 a year gets you shares in a local farm—and the impetus to eat real food instead of bodega dreck. From June to November, a farmer makes a weekly delivery of seven to ten types of fresh fruits and vegetables to a central neighborhood distribution site, where you pick up enough for two or three people. Some farms also include eggs, meat, milk, baked goods or maple syrup. These types of subscription farm programs “encourage consumers to eat healthier and to try different varieties of produce,” says Jessica Chittenden, spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets. You’ll be distinguishing your kale from your collards in no time.

Do it yourself, yo
There’s only one way to know exactly where your food comes from: Grow it yourself. Order your seed catalogs now (at territorialseed.com, johnnyseeds.com or seedsofchange.com), says Lis Thomas, who grows a third of her veggie intake—winter beans, Swiss chard, hot peppers and cabbage—in her Brooklyn backyard. Start plants indoors in February, and transplant them outside in early spring. Check out greenthumbnyc.org, which offers a list of NYC’s 600-plus community gardens and hosts a growing-season kickoff conference in the spring, or call the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s gardeners’ help line (718-623-7270). Oh, and one benefit of living in the concrete jungle? The growing season here is longer thanks to the city’s magnified heat.—BT

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