Siobhan Walsh: Go hybrid with your diet

Going hybrid with your daily diet offers the same kind of life-changing potential and opportunity to further reduce your carbon footprint.

The parallels are evident. When we take better care of ourselves we also are taking better care of our shared environment.

People in hybrid vehicles want to reduce greenhouse gases, their dependence on imported oil and save money at the gas pump. Hybrid eaters want to eat more greens and less red meat, consume fewer processed foods and snacks, and reduce energy costs and pollution associated with the global transportation of foods.

"The American diet is the SUV of eating styles," said Kate Geagan, a registered dietitian and author of Go Green, Get Lean, Trim Your Waistline with the Ultimate Low-Carbon Diet. (Rodale Books , $19.95). "It takes 7-10 calories of fossil fuel energy to bring one calorie of food energy to the American plate."

What can you do to balance personal consumption and energy consumption, and help the earth in the process?

Consume less. Whether the focus is automobiles or food portions, smaller is generally better. Put another way; do not consume more than your fair share, or more than you need. Reducing portion sizes and eliminating wasted food is good for you and good for everyone.

Eat simply. Whole grains are easy to prepare and have sustained us since the dawn of agriculture. Foods with labels that read like a high school chemistry exam are usually nonessential, and require energy-consuming manufacturing and shipping.

Reduce canned and bottled beverage use. It's wasteful to use and discard so many containers, and bottled and canned liquids weigh a lot and are costly to transport. Diet soda is no better than regular soda when it come to carbon calories.

Eat seasonally available fruits and vegetables. And shop for food produced locally such as whole grain breads, meats and eggs.