Should You Buy Organic??? by Dr. Nick Araza

Print & Keep in Wallet or Purse

YES.

Of course it is not that simple nowadays, but if you think about it, all food was organic at one point.  Just imagine fresh, ripe strawberries, apples and broccoli, all ready for the picking and grown by the hand of Mother Nature without any pesticides, herbicides or toxic petroleum-based fertilizers.  Sigh…it’s not the same type of dream that I had as a child, but I am nonetheless as passionate about it.

Today we have a lot more to think about on top of cost when making food purchases.  If you are at all concerned with these things as I am, I don’t have to tell you that while it’s definitely the healthiest option, buying organic can be financially painful.  This is especially true if you are eating HGS (Hunter Gatherer Style) and sucking fruits and veggies down by the truckload.  So, this week my post is here to help with your decisions on when to buy organic.

First I want everyone to understand that LOCAL AND ORGANIC IS THE BEST for our health.  Local is crucial when available because plants infused many of the nutrients into our foods during the last few days of vine ripening.  So, if it is picked weeks before ripening (in order to ship it 12,000 miles to get to you), it will not contain the same amounts of life-giving nutrients.  Ripening post picking would be better termed “rotting.”  If you happen to be one of the lucky (and I would guess less than 1% of us are) Americans who know the farmers that you buy from, ask them their farming methods, because often they actually are organic, but haven’t paid the government for the label.  When you have a relationship with the people who grow the food you eat, and that food is local, fresh and healthy, labels are not necessarily that important.

Outside of buying locally, you want to focus your efforts on buying organic produce if it is found in the DIRTY DOZEN column in the above picture (cutout).  This is a list that EWG (Environmental Working Group) www.ewg.org (an awesome organization) came up with after doing much research.  They found that some foods grow better, in terms of bugs and growing conditions than others, so they aren’t absolutely an organic necessity.  Others are heavily dosed with any number of toxic chemicals in order to get them from ground to shopper using industrial farming methods, and those are the ones you want to avoid if not grown organically.

Personally, I can never remember the difference, so I printed this picture out and it goes everywhere that I go, stashed in my wallet, because I never know when it will be time to gather.  If you cannot get this to print off our blog, visit  http://www.foodnews.org/ and you will be able to print it off of EWG’s Website.

Hope this helps on your journey to HGS living.  Have a happy and safe Independence Day!

Fight 4 Health

-Dr. Nicholas Araza DC CCWP