Thursday, April 2, 2009

Organic or not?

I'll admit that I've always thought the whole "organic food" thing was a little ridiculous. I mean, I buy smart chicken because I like it better, but other than that, my cart steers clear of the organic section.

Then, I heard about a study that took blood from 10 newborns' umbilical cords . You would think newborn babies' blood should be pure and clean, right? An average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants were found; a total of 287 different chemicals between the 10 babies. Of those 287 chemicals, 180 cause cancer, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects and abnormal development.

Now, I am not naive enough to believe that all those toxins came from food. Nor am I putting myself on a rigid organic diet. There is some produce, however, that we should just buy organic because we can't get rid of the pesticides by simply washing.

By the way, until 2 weeks ago I never, ever washed my non-organic produce before eating it!
There is a more complete list, but I think this one simplifies it pretty well. Keep in mind that pesticides cling to the fuzziness of peaches. Fruit with a rind or peel (cantaloupe and bananas)aren't a big deal because you eat the inside. Berries are hard to rid of pesticides, too.

I checked out our organic produce area this past weekend. Sadly, they had only 2 cartons of organic strawberries and no organic grapes or berries. The organic apples are delicious, though. I know I can't keep out all the toxins, and I know I can't buy everything organic; but I am going to check out our organic section more often and even purchase more organic items in the future.

Let me know if you are interested in the larger list of produce you should buy organic.

Information taken from Dr. Low Dog.

3 comments:

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas said...

very interresting.....can't say that I'm a washer either...maybe I should be thinking of that more often?? :)

Laura said...

unrelated question - how did you make your word cloud for your title?

Abby McNair said...

organic doesn't happen out west...