Organic Food, Part Deux

Welcome to part deux of the organic food overview.

If you read my last post, you now know what it means to be organic and how to find organic food amidst the sea of confusing packages and labels.

While it is best to eat organic food as much as possible (and BTW, all food used to be “organic” until we started messing about with how it was grown and raised) there are circumstances where it’s ok to skip organic sometimes and others where you absolutely should not do without it.

If you’re at any phase of the procreation process – about to try to become pregnant, are pregnant, breastfeeding or feeding solid food to your growing baby – babies cannot process toxins and pesticides as well as a fully formed adult can), if you are sick with a serious disease or bad cold (removing as much of the toxic load on your body will help you get better faster) or one of the best reasons – prevention. Eating organic can be an ounce of prevention against colds, disease, birth defects, etc. and is much better and less expensive than a pound of cure.

If you are only going to choose to eat some organic foods, I highly recommend the following:

· Green Leafy Veg – (Like kale, spinach, lettuce) These are the most important to replace as they have the most pesticides. But please don’t avoid these – they are such a powerhouse of nutrients and energy (not to mention boost your mood and keep your pipes moving.) In fact, I consider them the most important foods in our diets. If you must buy conventional produce for whatever reason you can remove some of the pesticides by soaking it in water with a little apple cider vinegar for about 30 minutes or you can buy produce wash at the store.

· Meat – Meat is filled with antibiotics and hormones and the animals live their lives in horrible, cramped and inhumane conditions – Hey, I’m totally fine with eating lamb and steak and all that tasty stuff, but I figure if you’re going to kick the bucket to be someone’s meal, you may as well have an enjoyable life on the way.

But anyway, by choosing organic and pasture fed (or at the very least antibiotic and hormone free and BTW hormone free is required by law so they’re not doing you any favors there, they HAVE to) you ensure that you’re getting the best quality and healthiest meat you can. Animals need antibiotics to heal faster from all the filthy conditions they live in and the bites, scratches and pecks they get from the other animals living in such close quarters with them. So if you choose antibiotic free there’s a high likelihood that the animals had some space to roam.

To learn more about factory farming (non organic/pasture fed), watch the critically-acclaimed, award-winning first episode of The Meatrix Trilogy at http://themeatrix.com – It’s a funny and informative cartoon (not like “Animal Farm”!) parody of the movie “The Matrix.” I promise this is not a disturbing shocker like when people send you those videos of baby seals getting clubbed and then expect you to watch them. It’s actually kindof cute…well, as far as this topic can be cute.

· Dairy – Same deal as meat. This stuff is filled with antibiotics and hormones (and other things that drop in that I’ll spare you from reading). Your best bet is go Organic and unhomogenized (which just means that the fat isn’t super blended together with the milk, so you’ll need to shake it up before you pour it to blend it.) If you want to take it a step further go for unpasteurized. But getting around pasteurization (heating the milk at super high heat to kill everything including enzymes that help you digest the milk) is a little more difficult.

People who drink/eat unpasteurized milk products report having fewer reactions to it, including fewer allergies, illnesses and, ahem, – digestive issues, etc. Short of buying your own cow or having a cow share (yes, people actually do this) you will have difficulty procuring it except in some states – Here’s a link to help you find raw milk in your state http://www.realmilk.com/where1.html.

· Coffee – Coffee is filled with pesticides. Obviously, you’re best without coffee, but I’m not going to try to snatch that nectar of life from you. When I quit coffee 2 years ago, I was fierce in the process so I know how that can feel! So, if you must drink coffee, drink organic coffee and if you’re feeling ultra charitable choose Free Trade to ensure that the people farming it are given fair wages.

· The Dirty Dozen – Finally, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), has put out a list of the “Dirty Dozen” so you can see the 12 most and 12 least contaminated fruits and vegetables to help you determine which you should buy organic. That’s the 12 fruits/veg that have the highest pesticide residue and are therefore, going into your body and messing with your immune system, and the 12 least contaminated that are ok to buy as conventional (from a pesticide perspective) http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214

So there you have it – organics 101, with some specific tips to get you started and on your way to a cleaner and healthier body. Wow, that wasn’t so hard, but wait…now what’s the difference between ORGANIC and LOCAL? :-O

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Ingrid is a board certified holistic health counselor and the founder of Full Life Nutrition LLC.  She received her training at Columbia University and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and is a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP).