July 12, 2012
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Taking eating a step further–organic
I convinced my parents to try to buy organic. As Chinese parents, they are more worried about how much food costs, rather than the about all the potential health issues that one may get. However, as my father is probably suffering from celiac disease as well, he fully understands that what you eat can really make a difference.
Since I pretty much pay for everything around the house, I told them I’d pay extra for eating organic as well. Do I know for sure eating organic will be better for us? No conclusive study has proven that it does, but conventional wisdom tells me that the exponential increase of cancer and other diseases in the past 50 or so years and it may have to do with the things put into our foods.
Conventional wisdom also tells me that if spray 10-20 kinds of pesticides onto our produce to keep insects away, it can’t be good for humans. No amount of washing would get it off, especially if it’s absorbed into the fruit or vegetable. Conventional wisdom also tells me that growth hormones and anti-biotics injected into the animals will pass through to us when we eat them.
And even if you don’t believe in this, there’s really no way of denying that organic foods taste better. If you haven’t tried it, go to Whole Foods, buy some organic foods and then buy the same foods, but non-organic (inorganic might not be the correct word) at your neighborhood store and cook the same thing. You’ll realize how much more delicious everything is. I just hope that as more people begin eating organic, more farms will switch to it and increase supply, driving costs down a bit.
Obviously there’s no way I can eat organic all the time and every meal since dining out leaves you fewer options sometimes, but my entire family and I will work towards eating better and healthier. I realized that waking up and feeling better about yourself, yields a really wholesome kind of happiness. I just have to continue making better choices.
What are your thoughts on organic foods?
Comments (18)
I love going to organic food markets. I still buy normal veggies and I go home and wash it with vegetable wash. It removes pesticides. The food taste better too.
i told you that jason and i have changed our diet recently. we’re also doing the paleo diet. he’s doing crossfit, and a lot of crossfitters seem to swear by it. but we aren’t doing it organically for the simple fact that it costs a lot more. just yesterday though i told him that we should probably cut back on eating out and put that money toward buying organic food because this is our health, man.
@MJeeeeeeeezy - The interesting thing is that while it costs more to eat paleo organically, the costs will be less when you factor in the fact that you no longer eat junk food and grains. And what’s even more interesting is that once your body is completely adjusted to eating mostly meat, you can actually lower your calorie intake which means you eat less.
I want to get into crossfit too. It’s just kind of time consuming and I live too far for fully take advantage of classes and stuff.
Anyway, glad you’re making the best choices for yourself MJ! So happy for you.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Organic is biiig business in Europe, and I wonder how organic it can be if it caters to a mass market. I always tried to buy my fruit/vegetables according to season and from a regional aspect. Now that I live in Asia, organic seems unheard of. I try to avoid stuff coming from the country with a big C. I don’t trust the safety. Sounds racist? Maybe it is but exploding water melons, recycled oil, and milk that gives one kidney stones are not trust building.
@beowulf222 - Not racist at all. Even my family in China do not trust the food they eat.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ionno man. I WAS a health freak many years ago. There’s absolutely nothing different when it comes to the nutritional value in the same types of food you consume whether it’s organic or non-organic. In California, it’s trendy and a way to keep hipsters and hippies from rioting and burning down local businesses. Also, depending on what you’re getting, it could be as little as 5 cents to double the price of what you normally get.
You put it into perspective, though. Pesticides CANNOT be good for you. I like knowing that with organic food, I can just rinse the dirt off and eat. WIth other ones, I scrub, and waste a shit load of time trying to get it clean as possible.
FDA approved my ass. Good point… more cancer and health problems occurred after pesticides became a normal use on the farms.
@BenelliMan - My wife has been soaking her produce in a vinegar and lime juice solution (then diluted with water) because it
may
clean out most/all of the pesticides in the food.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
America is the country that invests the least percentage of money on food. It’s all about cheap food-like substances.
did you read this article on organics?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/organic-food-purists-worry-about-big-companies-influence.html?pagewanted=all
i wondered that eventually “organic” will be the new norm due to demand. eventually even organic will be overprocessed and wont be true organic anymore…
i think you already know from past entries that i started seeing a nutritionist earlier this year, mainly after some health issues AND especially after my body reacted fatally to carrots so i am really happy when i hear about people changing their lifestyles/diets. recently, i started to get allergic reactions to various fruits and veggies that i’ve eaten my ENTIRE life, like CELERY and CARROTS. wtf, right? the only deduction that my allergist and nutritionist can hypothesize for sure is that companies are using more and more harmful pesticides in their products now, which just makes things worse.
but anyway. tangent. sorry! i tend to ramble, lol. i agree that you can’t eat organic all the time, so my nutritionist recently gave me a list of things that are worth buying organic and others that may or may not make that much of a difference. here is a pretty comparable list from WebMD (i know, not a completely reliable source, but hopefully you know what i mean!): http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/ss/slideshow-to-buy-or-not-to-buy-organic. you could use that as a guide as you pick and choose as you go.
gl, and happy to hear about the new changes and your always positive attitude, dude!
I was originally into organic foods until I read that
a) organic farmers are also allowed to use pesticides (organic types) which might actually be worse for health because they’re less effective and need to be applied in larger amounts
b) the potential health benefits of organic foods are off-set by the environmental impact in transporting them since organic food grows less/slower than non-organic farming and will need to be shipped from further places than usual.
I’m not against organic foods, just skeptical. My family soaks veggies and produce in water for an hour before cooking them. That’s already effective in removing a lot of chemicals and pesticides.
Google “the dirty dozen and buying organic” there are plenty of infographics that show which foods you need to by organic, and which foods you can go without.
I am all for eating organic. It is a cost function. If you can afford it, definitely do it
the land and most of the land around the farm would have to be untouched for a couple of years to even start being eligible for organic certification…so for them to switch…isn’t going to just happen on a whim. plus there’s different types of organic labeling…they aren’t all equal.
i think the term “organic” has become a household name that companies use to abuse and sell their products. cows that are not fed any antibiotics even when they are sick, does that make a healthier meat? i’m not sure. to me, real organic food is food that you grow yourself.
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