Go organic or not? What's all the hullabaloo about? You know Donna and I have been natural, organic food consumers from the very beginning of our marriage. When we first got married we lived on a farm, milked a cow, and grew our own vegetables.
Yes, we really milked a cow. She was our landlord's cow, and he allowed us to care for her and milk her every morning and every night. She was beautiful. A huge Holstein who, every time she gave birth, consistently had twins. So, consequently, she produced a lot of milk. It was so good. We made our own butter in the blender-yes, you can make butter in the blender, yogurt, ice cream, yogurt cream cheese, etc. We drank the milk fresh from the cow, and we are still here.:)
Why am I mentioning all this? The debate about natural and organic and chemically treated foods, raw milk versus homogenized, meat from naturally fed animals raised on a farm that allows animals to graze in fields versus meat from animals kept in confinement and sent to slaughter houses, and so on, has been ongoing for decades: Chemical versus natural, organic. In other words---Man's choice made by what science and commerce dictates, or food raised by the design of God.
Food is our life source for survival. It is just not something to fill a void or satisfy taste buds with adulterated empty calories using high fructose corn syrup and myriads of chemicals per bite. It was meant to nourish our very being. With good natural food, healthy water, exercise, and positive thoughts, our life being can be filled with vibrancy. When we can satisfy our taste buds with unadulterated food that is live, fresh, and in its natural state, taste buds change and recognize what healthy eating should be. Go natural!
Eat healthy and organic especially in the summer weather when fresh foods are abundant. If you don't or can't have a garden where you live, choose to shop at your local farmer's market and roadside stands. In the winter, shop organic and eat simply. Many varieties of squash are abundant and nutrient rich. Don't just use pumpkins for carving at Halloween. Enjoy them at your dinner table.
Make a meal of a watermelon, or fresh, raw vegetables all by themselves when in season. Don't make them a side dish. Savor every mouthful. Enjoy a meal like that with friends, and take time to chew well. You will probably eat less and be satisfied more.
Eat natural,
The following articles were recently posted online. Hope you find them interesting.
NUREMBERG — Can mineral water, which comes up from the depths of the earth and must simply be filled into bottles, be called "organic"?
Absolutely, says the German firm Lammsbräu. It bottles water from its own springs with labels bearing a house-designed "bio" (organic) seal and sells it under the name of BioKristall. And now the Nuremberg Court of Appeals has given its stamp of (legal) approval. Judge Manfred Schwerdtner ruled that the Lammsbräu water was "different from many other mineral waters," and therefore the description of it fulfilled consumer expectation. The word
bio in the name did not suggest some form of state licensing was behind the product, although the court ruled that the company seal, in its resemblance to an existing German eco-seal, could confuse consumers and would have to be changed.
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The ideal — as we're reminded and reminded and reminded — is to go organic, to trade processed foods for fresh foods and the supermarket for the farmers' market. Organic foods of all kinds currently represent only about 3% of the total American market, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but it's a sector we all should be supporting more.
That sounds like a great idea, but we'll pay a price for it. Organic fruits and vegetables cost 13¢ to 36¢ per lb. more than ordinary produce, though prices fluctuate depending on the particular food and region of the country. Milk certified as hormone- and antibiotic-free costs $6 per gal. on average, compared with $3.50 for ordinary grocery-store milk.
What's more, while grass-fed beef is lower in fat, and milk without chemicals is clearly a good idea, it's less obvious that organic fruits and vegetables have a nutritional edge to speak of. A 2009
study in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition led to a firestorm in the food world. It found no difference between organic and conventional produce with regard to all but three of the vitamins and other food components studied, and conventional produce actually squeaked past organic for one of those three.
(See the results of a farm vs. supermarket taste test.)
"We draw these bright lines between organic and conventional food," says McWilliams. "But science doesn't draw those lines. They crisscross, and you have people on both sides of the argument cherry-picking their data." For consumers trying to stay healthy and feed their families — and do both on budgets that have become tighter than ever — the ideological back-and-forth does no good at all. What's needed are not arguments but answers.
The Wages of Eating
The biggest reason not to ignore the food purists is that in a lot of ways they're right. Our diet is indeed killing us, and it's killing the planet too. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta released a
study revealing that nearly 27% of Americans are now considered obese (that is, more than 20% above their ideal weight), and in nine states, the obesity rate tops 30%. We eat way too much meat — up to 220 lb. per year for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — and only 14% of us consume our recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Our processed food is dense with salt and swimming in high-fructose corn syrup, two flavors we can't resist. Currently, enough food is manufactured in the U.S. for every American to consume 3,800 calories per day — we need only 2,350 in a healthy diet — and while some of that gets thrown away, most is gobbled up long before it can go stale on the shelves.
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