To Organic or Not to Organic? That is the Question

Have you ever wondered what the big deal is with organic fruits and vegetables? Or thought, is it really necessary to eat it, or is just some marketing scam? Do you have to only buy organic foods, or can you cheat here and there? Well, we're here to help answer some of those questions and offer a little bit of clarity on the subject. 

If you are active in the wellness community within the various social media spaces, you likely already have your own reasons for choosing to eat organic. Our mission at Sage HealthStyle is to help inform our clients, friends and family so they can make the choice to bring organic into their lives. With the release of the 2017 list of the Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen, we thought this would be a great time for all of us to remind those in our communities to help improve their health, minimize diseases and strengthen the earth by choosing organic when they can (for those of you that are unaware of this list, the Dirty Dozen is the top 12 fruits & vegetables that are more susceptible to pesticides, while the Clean Fifteen are the fruits & vegetables that can hold up to the pesticides used in conventional farming. If you can't afford to go completely organic, try to at least buy organic when it comes to the Dirty Dozen as these will cause the most harm if consuming conventional). 

The downside of course is that it is more expensive to buy organic than it is to buy conventional foods; so for most of us, that means we have to make choices on what to spend the extra money on.  Long term, as more and more of us do make these choices, eventually economics will step in and prices will go down.

 

We will avoid getting into the political argument about why or why not you should eat organic, there truly is a lot of controversy and a lot of money behind conventional farming.  Darci can authoritatively speak to this having spent many years as the VP of Marketing for Green Giant Fresh.  Suffice it to say, at Sage, we support organic food consumption, to whatever degree your budget will allow it.

So to our community of wellness seekers that are still on the fence we have a few reasons to choose organic.  

  1. Organic food is higher in nutrients. than traditional foods. Research shows that organic produce is higher in vitamin C and antioxidants and the minerals calcium, iron, chromium, and magnesium.

  2. Our number one comment we hear from clients “Most organic food simply tastes better than the pesticide-grown counterparts.”

  3. They’re free of neurotoxins–toxins that are damaging to brain and nerve cells. A commonly-used class of pesticides called organophosphates was originally developed as a toxic nerve agent during World War I.

  4. Further to the chemical point- More than 600 active chemicals are registered for agricultural use in America, to the tune of billions of pounds annually. The average application equates to about 16 pounds of chemical pesticides per person every year.

  5. They’re supportive of growing children’s brains and bodies. Children’s growing brains and bodies are far more susceptible to toxins than adults. Choosing organic helps feed their bodies without the exposure to pesticides and genetically-modified organisms

  6. Choosing organic meat lessens your exposure to antibiotics, synthetic hormones, and drugs that find their way into the animals and ultimately into you.  This one point is very important for everyone, but especially for females as we try to manage our hormonal balance as we move through the cycles of our life.

  7. Eating organic may reduce your cancer risk. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 60% of herbicides, 90% of fungicides, and 30% of insecticides potentially cancer-causing. It is reasonable to think that the rapidly increasing rates of cancer are at least partly linked to the use of these carcinogenic pesticides.

  8. We can’t avoid the topic of GMO’s (and again we will avoid the lengthy political POV’s around this topic) – Because organically grown food cannot be genetically modified in any way, choosing organic is the only way to be sure that foods that have been genetically engineered stay out of your diet. 

 

So if doing it for you and your loved ones is not enough- let’s consider Mother Earth!

  1. Organic food is earth-supportive. Organic food production has been around for thousands of years and is the sustainable choice for the future. Compare that to modern agricultural practices that are destructive of the environment through widespread use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers and have resulted in drastic environmental damage in many parts of the world.

  2. Organic farms are safer for farm workers. Research at the Harvard School of Public Health found a 70 percent increase in Parkinson’s disease among people exposed to pesticides

  3. Preserve agricultural diversity Preserve agricultural diversity

  4. The rampant loss of species occurring today is a major environmental concern. It is estimated that 75% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost in the last century. Leaning heavily on one or two varieties of a given food is a formula for devastation. For instance, consider that only a handful of varieties of potatoes dominate the current marketplace, whereas thousands of varieties were once available

  5. Reduce pollution and protect water and soil Agricultural chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers are contaminating our environment, poisoning our precious water supplies, and destroying the value of fertile farmland. 

 

There are so many great sources for information on the web surrounding both sides of organic farming, a few we have cited are below, but please spend a little time to better arm yourself with information to make a fully informed decision yourself.

HealthStyle Tips, Whole Real FoodsAmanda Crottyorganic, whole real foods, fruits, vegetables, dirty dozen, clean fifteenComment