Go Organic

Is organic food better or is it just a fad? The principle objective of organic food is to lower your intake of toxins. Conventional crops are sprayed with lots of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Organic crops are grown with natural alternatives. Some argue that all the pesticides from conventional crops gets onto the organic  via wind and water. While there is truth to this, toxins are inevitable and will show up everywhere, organic crops will ultimately have less exposure than conventional crops. A study by the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry found in 2003 that organic foods are better for fighting cancer. A 2005 study showed that rats on an organic food diet were healthier than the rats on a conventional diet. There was big study conducted by the EU called the Quality Low Input Food Project, which found that organic food is much more nutritious than conventional produce. The study was done by growing organic and non-organic vegetables and fruits, and raising cattle on the organic vs. conventional produce. In this study the milk from the organic herds contained up to 90% more antioxidants. The organic produce had higher levels of minerals (ie. zinc). The organic produce had up to 40% more antioxidants. Your best assurance about the quality and authenticity of food being organic is the USDA organic seal. Other organic certifications are not as strict and may be more compromised. So the benefits of organic are that you are getting less harmful pesticides, possibly more nutrition and organic farming methods are better for the environment as a whole.  I personally don't eat certain conventional fruits. They don't have taste. Organic is not perfect, but you just can't compare the taste. My wife once made a small party with guests and one of the foods served was a bowl of fruit salad. P eople wanted to know what else she put in for it was actually sweet. The reality was, the only thing in there was fruit, organic fruits. 

The big problem with organic though is cost. Organic products are more pricey, so if your budget constrains you from getting all organic, get it where it counts more. Every year there is a list updated with the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen. That is which 12 fruits or veggies have the highests amounts of pesticides, and which 15 are the cleanest. The dirty dozen should be your priority to get organic. More important though is to buy organic meat and butter. Think about it like this. The cattle are being fed pesticide contained feed for their lifetime (however long that is) getting a build up and accumulation of toxins. as opposed to produce which just contains the pesticides it was sprayed with. 1 or 1 times 100. So most importantly get organic butter and meat.