Amy's Nutrition Picks: Composting and Health

Composting should be a part of your healthy lifestyle! Composting is taking food and yard scraps and decomposing them in your backyard into a dark, rich soil additive. There are several great reasons to compost:

1. If you are a recycler, then composting is just another easy form of recycling. Right now 30% of the solid waste produced in the United States comes from food and yard scraps, and unfortunately, these materials decompose very slowly in a landfill due to lack of oxygen.
2. Having dark, rich compost available might spur a home garden! Veggies grown in compost-enriched soil have a better nutrient composition because compost puts nutrients into the soil.
3. It forces you to eat more fruits and veggies to keep the pile going! I get excited when I get to traipse out to the compost bin with a bunch of fruit and veggie scraps from that day. It is a good gauge of how many fruits and vegetables you are actually eating.

You can compost raw fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds and filters, napkins, shredded newspaper, rinsed crushed egg shells, grass cuttings, fall leaves, and shredded wood and branches. Avoid meat and oily, cooked products. A nice mix of kitchen scraps and dead leaves can keep a pile actively rotting. Turn occasionally to promote air flow.

Many different kinds of containers designed specifically for composting can be purchased, most small enough to fit on an apartment balcony. If there is more room available, an open pile in the corner of the backyard or a homemade bin will work just as well!

Amy Cain, dietitian
(801) 476-2212