Eating More Organic Ideas?

Environmental Working Group is also a great site for more info.
EWG.ORG
Cheers for choosing organic!

I LOVE Trader Joe's for organic foods. They seem to be the most affordable and I'm always happy with the quality of their food. Cub has a decent selection too. I do make trips to a natural food store when I need to stock up on organic frozen fruits & veggies as it seems to be the only place with a wide selection of frozen produce.

I would start going organic with fruits & veggies first since they are the biggest concern with all the pesticides. For me, I decided to just go organic/all natural with most of my produce and foods that I feel are just overly-processed and loaded with preservatives like mac & cheese, frozen dinners, stuff like that. You can drive yourself crazy (and broke) going 100% organic, so just go with the level that feels right to you.

I recently took another step into it myself, but did a little bit long ago. I started years ago by buying organic eggs and select milk with no added hormomes. Recently, I've started buying veggies and fruits organic as well. The prices of organic foods have come down alot and the more people buy, the more it will be reduced. You can buy organic soups, pasta's etc now too for almost the same price as non-organic.

They say that the foods you really need to buy in ogranic are ones that have thin skins or no skin. (Apples, tomatoes, kiwi, potatos, milk, etc.) The ones you don't have to worry so much about are ones with thick skins where pestisides wouldn't be a threat to penetrating the skin and entering the food itself. (Oranges, Bananas, etc.)

Easy things can help your family be more healty, other than organic choices, like not using plastic as much as possible is also a good choice and not very costly. (Avoid plastics with the numbers 3, 6 and 7 on them, they are very harmful cancer causing chemicals in which they leak into your body even if you're not heating in them. Safe plastics are #1, 2, 4 and 5) Here is a good website that I use for a good guide.

http://thegreenguide.com/
It's hosted by national geographic but I've found some really nice living green tips on here, including organic foods.

There is also a website and magazine called: Nutrition Action at http://www.cspinet.org/nah/index.htm Which is also a great soure (my SIL gets it and I look at it when I go to her house) But it's not free and they charge an annual fee for a subscription to their magazine.

Good luck. :)

Quick Edit: Costco carries ALOT of ogranic food choices. I shop there alot and I've found some of my families favorite foods there simply by trying their organic choices. My mom and I were at Costco a week ago and she has a Sam's membership. She says that they don't have hardly any (if any at all) organic choices at Sam's. She took advantage of all the organic choices while we were there and stocked up.

K.,
Can I ever relate! The big step that our family has taken this year is to add Mona Vie acai juice to our diet.

MonaVie is a delicious organic and 100% natural health and wellness drink made from the powerful Acai berry of the Amazon along with 18 other nutritious fruits from around the world. It is the most powerful fruit juice blend of its kind. The Acai berry is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world… “nature’s perfect energy fruit”. It is popping up everywhere and has been all over the news.

MonaVie is a drink made to help the body perform at an optimum level. It has a blend of the most powerful antioxidants , provides the right variety and balance of phytonutrients, and serves as an incredible nutritional supplement.

My good friend Amanda, massage therapist and mom to 3 young kids, introduced it to me. She thought it would be a great supplement for my diet and crazy lifestyle. It took less than 2 weeks for me to realize that I was becoming full of energy, was able to get up earlier and stay up later, was much sharper at work, and generally had a great feeling of well-being and ‘aliveness.’ I’ve also
found my chronic joint aches and pains fade away. My husband is having similar results.

There are lots of great things to say about Mona Vie, and I invite you to visit my website at www.mymonavie.com./jesnough to learn more. You can also see a great You Tube clip that has combined a series of news stories at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbPiMPYbRrU.

If you would like more information, don't hesitate to contact me. It’s an amazing product if you're looking to add something really healthy to your diets.

Jen

There is a wonderful book out there called, The Safe Shopper's Bible by: Steinman & Epstein, MD.

It has a wealth of information in it.

This year I've joined a CSA community supported agriculture. You buy a share and receive produce directly from the farm. Different farms have different drop off sites around the Twin Cities area. The one I'm involved with has already sold all its shares, but there are others. I also like to shop farmer's markets in the summer, but you need to ask the farmers if their produce is organic. Not all of it is.

Produce is probably one of the more important areas to buy organic, but honestly, I try to buy everything we eat organic if at all possible. Another area is anything with "fat" in it, like cheese, butter, milk, cream, etc. Pesticides will accumulate in fat therefore you don't want feed your children that if you can avoid it. Costco & Super Target have good prices on Milk and eggs, cream, butter & organic cheese. When it comes to meat, I always try to buy the "natural" no antibiotics, no growth hormone meat/chicken. It's more difficult to find organic meats, but it can be done as well. I would also make sure to buy the organic eggs-much better for you and they taste better too! They are priced very reasonably at Super Target. If your family eats red sauce, Bertolli has a REALLY good red sauce/pasta sauce that is organic and very inexpensive, $2.99 a jar and you can find this at Super Target too. A lot of the organic options at Trader Joe's are good-you can buy the Trader Joes brand and not compromise and taste & quality. Trader Joe's organic peanut butter is really good as well as their organic cheese pizza.
I started going organic when I was pregnant with my first daughter and now 6 years later have pretty much completely converted over. It was baby steps but eventually you just won't be able to buy conventional if there is an organic alternative-We have lot's more options now than we did 6 years ago so I think you should find that it isn't as tough to do as it might seem.
One last thing-since I started going organic, I notice that I'm much more aware of what I'm buying and making sure that I don't waste anything (at least as much as I did when we bought conventional). I spend more on groceries now but not that much more-we don't waste nearly as much food as we used to.

Hope this helps a little!

I have been slowly incorporating more organic foods into our home. It started recently when my daughter started eating solids; I refuse to buy processed baby food (yuck!--and what a waste of money). Also, she was a preemie & is still pretty small for her age. As I was making baby food for her, it occured to me the amount of 'junk' in her body was a huge percentage higher than what was in an adult body. So I did a little looking around...some things really aren't that much more expensive; for example, bananas are about 50 cents a bunch more. Another thing I started doing was instead of buying packaged baby carrots, I buy the bag of washed but not prepared carrots...less money, more carrot. I find we waste less food too; organic (and locally grown) tastes SO MUCH better than the pesticide filled food that we eat it before spoiling occurs.
We do not buy organic meat. My husband grew up on a farm & we use meat from the cows & pigs there. If that isn't an option, maybe purchase a side of beef from someone you know & trust to raise healthy animals.
Try searching for coupons online. I recently printed several from Stonyfield, which makes the YoBaby & YoMommy yogurt.

Start small, incorporate easy changes that are easy to make (say, if you already buy yogurt, switch to organic yogurt), and once they are entrenched, branch out. Like others, I like Trader Joe's because it's not so overwhelming. I can go in with the kids, make it out in half an hour, and leave with a couple of bags of good food--usually for around $30. Places like Cub and Rainbow have such a small selection of organic products that 1) it's hard to shop them because they're off in a separate section and 2) it's not their main business. I find the selection skimpy and the turn-over is slow so I often find expired products. Good luck...every little thing you do makes a difference, so you don't have to change everything at once.

Good question! And good for you for thinking about what your family eats.

For me, locally-grown and "natural" always trumps organic food from 1,000 miles away. By natural, I mean little or no pesticides for produce. For meat & dairy, no growth hormones or antibiotics, and the animals are treated humanely (no caged hens, etc.). Basically, organic or not--know your food source!

Something to keep in mind with organic food is that it takes years for a farm to convert to organic and it's very costly. While a noble goal, it is out of the reach of some smaller farms. Many of these farms treat their animals respectfully, and do not use hormones or antibiotics. And I personally would rather see a local family farm stay in business because they've sparingly and thoughtfullly used pesticides to save their crops.

Hi K.--If you really want to turn your world upside down regarding our food sources and organic vs. everything else that's out there on the shelf, read The Omnivore's Dilemma. It has changed our life and now we're trying to figure out how to incorporate changes into our life. We bought it at amazon.com
Good luck!

We've been eating organic for over 3 years now. We try to buy everything organic if possible because the products are free from artificial colors and flavors and genetically modified sources (example: msg).

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRODUCT THAT SAYS NATURAL AND ONE THAT SAYS USDA ORGANIC. There is no regulation on products that say natural. A product can say natural and have artificial colors and flavors in it. Organic will not.

Start with these items, especially the apples!!!

***This taken from an organic forum I belong to.

Top Foods to Choose Organic

The “dirty dozen” are the most commonly and highly contaminated foods with pesticides and chemicals, even after washing and peeling. The research used to compile this list is from extensive independent tests run by the FDA and the USDA from over 100,000 samples of food. The chemical pesticides detected in these studies are known to cause cancer, birth defects, nervous system and brain damage, and development problems in children. Panic if it ain’t organic.

See Renée’s new book The Balanced Plate (due out August, 2006) for more in-depth information.

1. Meat: beef, pork, and poultry
The EPA reports that meat is contaminated with higher levels of pesticides than any plant food. Many chemical pesticides are fat-soluble and accumulate in fatty tissue of animals.

2. Dairy: milk, cheese and butter
For similar reasons to meat, the fat in dairy products pose a high risk for contamination of pesticides as animals concentrate pesticides and chemicals in their milk and meat. Growth hormones and antibiotics are also a serious concern and invariably found in commercial milk, cheese and butter.

3. Strawberries
Strawberries are the most heavily dosed crops with pesticides in America. On average, 300 pounds of pesticides are applied to every acre of strawberries (compared to an average of 25 pounds per acre for other foods).

4. Apples
With 36 different chemicals detected in FDA testing, half of which are neurotoxins (meaning they cause brain damage), apples are almost as contaminated as strawberries. Peeling non-organic apples reduces but does not eliminate the danger of ingesting these chemicals. Go organic, especially for children.

5. Tomatoes
More than 30 pesticides are standard regimen to spray on conventionally grown tomatoes. The thin skin does not protect chemicals from infiltrating the whole tomato. Bummer.

6. Potatoes
Potatoes are one of the most popular vegetables in America and rank among the most laden with pesticides. Fungicides added to soil where potatoes are grown is another story and reason to go organic.

7. Spinach (and other greens including lettuce)
The FDA found spinach to be one of the most frequently contaminated crops with some of the most potent pesticides used on food.

8. Coffee
Most coffee is grown is countries where there are little to no standards to regulate the use of chemicals and pesticides on food. Purchasing “Fair Trade” coffee is further assurance that the premium price paid for this treasured beverage supports farms and workers with more equanimity and reward.

9. Peaches and Nectarines
45 different pesticides are regularly applied to succulent, delicious peaches and nectarines in conventional orchards. The thin skin does not protect the fruit from the dangers of these poisons.

10. Grapes (especially imported grapes)
Because grapes are a delicate fruit, they are sprayed multiple times during different stages of growth. The thin skin does not offer much protection to the 35 different pesticides used as a standard in conventional vineyards. Imported grapes are even more heavily treated that domestically grown grapes. Several of the most poisonous pesticides banned in the U.S. are still used on grapes grown abroad.

11. Celery
At least 29 different chemicals are applied directly to conventionally grown celery as it grows, which cannot be washed off because celery does not have any protective skin.

12. Bell Peppers (Red & Green)
Bell peppers are one of the most heavily sprayed foods, with standard use of 39 pesticides. The thin skin of peppers does not offer much protection from spraying.