Easy to be lean when you're green

The no plastic diet ... packaged foods are often the most fattening.
Saying no to plastic packaging can have an unexpected benefit - weight loss.

When she goes to the supermarket, Bea Johnson takes along a sealable glass jar so the butcher can slide in a pork cutlet. In the bulk aisle, she fills reusable bags she makes from old bed sheets to carry rice, pasta, oatmeal or nuts.

In fact, everything she and her husband buy is without packaging: they make their own household cleaning products, buy soap that comes unwrapped and return milk bottles to suppliers for refills.

At least three times a week, Johnson phones marketing companies in her unrelenting war against junk mail.

"The amount of money you can save by just carrying your own water bottle is huge. Plus, the more you get away from plastic, the more likely you are to buy fresh," said Johnson, who blogs about her lifestyle in Marin County, California, at zerowastehome.blogspot.com.

The health benefits of a wrapper-free life are also a major theme for Colin Beavan in New York. He wrote a book, No Impact Man, which was about a year that he and his family spent without electricity and living with as little waste as they could. Although their experiment ended in November 2007, they have committed to staying packaging free.

"Most of the fattening foods, the bad stuff, come heavily wrapped. If you confine yourself to fresh products from the supermarket or farmer's market, your family is going to be a lot healthier," he said.

Beavan buys most of his food at the local farmers market. He returns his egg cartons and milk bottles to the farmers and buys round blocks of cheese that come without packaging.

"I think my family is a lot happier now," he said. "It's not simply about less packaging; it's about changing your whole outlook, about wanting less and getting so much more as a family."

I wondered if I, too, could live without any packaging, except for plastic bags I reuse during trips to the supermarket.

For the past month, every grocery item I've purchased has been without wrapping. I go to the bulk aisle of my local food co-op for pasta, rice, beans, flour, oatmeal, nuts and anything else that I can pour into my own bags, which are then weighed at the checkout counter.

I now have ten reusable bags, including a plastic one I use to buy loose spinach and broccoli. One of the strangest byproducts of this experiment has been my newfound respect for plastic; it is no longer discarded after a one-night stand, but has become more like a long-term relationship.

Apart from saving vast amounts of chemicals and oil that go into making shopping bags and reducing the giant soup of plastic clogging oceans, saying no to packaging has improved my waistline and my wallet.

With no more sad looking, single-serving microwave meals, and my coffee from a paper cup replaced with a drink from my water bottle, I feel more energetic and less stressed. Because I bring broccoli and carrots to work and do not touch additives, my skin is clearer. The sudden arrival of middle age spread has completely disappeared from my waist.

I also find myself cooking less. I have my plastic container of spinach and broccoli at work every day, so I feel less of a need for big meals.

Finding cage-free eggs and dairy products can be a problem, but many local farmers markets will refill your egg boxes and replace your milk bottles. I was almost overcome with joy when I found a supermarket steps from my home that sold chocolate and dried apricots in bulk, so dessert was back on.

Financially, all of this has been a major boost. Carrots and onions unburdened by plastic are a lot cheaper, and making my own shampoo saves money.

The major downside is that I am now a crushing bore. Where once my conversations might have been about sports and cinema, now all my sentences seem to begin with, "Did you know ..." followed by a list of places you can get refills on shampoo, honey or milk, or the best type of reusable bags for buying flour.