most impt. organic foods

[mama milkshake]

I have recently started learning about the benefits of organic foods and have been trying to switch over. However, it is not in our budget right now to buy everything organic, so I was wondering which foods are the most important to buy organic. Right now I buy mostly our fresh produce organic and sometimes eggs. Thanks for any input.

[freethinkingmom]

Ten most important organic foods to eat
Baby Food - According to the National Academy of Sciences, federal pesticide standards provide too little health protection.

Strawberries - A 1993 study by the Environmental Working Group found that supermarket strawberries were the most heavily contaminated fruit or vegetable in the US.

Rice - Water-soluble herbicides and insecticides have contaminated the groundwater near rice fields. Buy organic rice from Eagle Agricultural Products, Lundberg Family Farmers, or MacDougall's Wild Rice.

Oats - In 1994, the FDA found illegal residues in a year's worth of Cheerios from GM. Organic growers provide oats, millet, quinoa, barley, couscous, amaranth, and spelt as healthy options.

Milk - Dairy companies inject cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone. 79% of treated cows get clinical mastitis, a common udder infection. Treating them with antibiotics increases the change of residue in milk. Organic milk is widely available.

Bell Peppers - The FDA found that in 1993, 38% of the peppers from Mexico, which provides 98% of the US, had two or more toxic pesticides.

Bananas - Costa Rica uses 35% of the country's pesticide on banana crops.

Green Beans - 60 pesticides are used on green beans. 10% of Mexican green beans are contaminated with illegal pesticides.

Peaches - FDA cited peaches for above-average rates of illegal pesticide violations; 5% of the crop was contaminated.

Apples - 36 different pesticides have been detected by the FDA. The fungicide captan and the insecticide chlorpyrifos were among the 48 pesticides most frequently found in FDA testing between 1984 and 1991. After the Alar scare in the 80's, growers are leading the integrated-pest management movement, which only resorts to chemicals when mandatory.

[mama milkshake]

Thank you freethinking mom. A great list! Where did you get that info?

[jasnjakesmama]

We try to but as much organic as possible. It does get VERY expensive.
We buy dairy (milk and eggs) I buy regular butter because I bake a lot and the organic is 6.00 a pound!
Almost all produce. We get a big box of fruits and veggies delivered every week from Urban Organic. Once in a while I am tempted to buy fruit from Costco because of the price and I do cave. I wash it extra carefully although I know I am not removing all of the pesticides.
Cereal, nuts and nut butters. We eat alot of these things and I make sure they are organic.
Cleaning products. I no longer use comet or windex, etc. I use vinegar and baking soda for all my cleaning.

Freethinking Mom, that list was very interesting. I was aware of some things on it but not others. Where is the list from?

~Jennifer

[ekblad9]

I'm so jealous of the Urban Organic thing! Anyone know of any other organic delivery companies for Michigan? I would love that!

[scribblerkate]

Edited to note that this list specifically addresses pesticides and not other issues such as GMOs. Here's another list focusing just on conventionally grown fruits and veggies. It has one contradiction with freethinkingmom's list but other than that they jive prety well.

Worst:
apples, celery, grapes (from Chile), green beans, peaches, pears, potatoes, raspberries, spinach, strawberries

Best:
asparagus, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, cherries (from Chile), corn, onions, pineapple, sweet peas, watermelon

This list comes from the Environmental Working Group and I should point out that it's based on government data of pesticide residues.

Kate

[blueridgewoman]

I think, also, that you can usually figure it out by how thick the skin is.

If I am somewhere where they have conventional produce (someone's house, a party, whatever) I'll usually go for thick skinned fruits and veggies because the pesticides can't saturate the skin, or we don't eat the skin anyway. Things like bananas, avocados, stuff like that.

Hm. I guess the jury is out on bananas. I know they have to use heavy fungicides, etc, but then you peel the skin away, right? And it's thick..... Does it soak through?

[freethinkingmom]

Sorry I didn't write out a personal message with the info!
Dd was in my arms and woke up...so I could only copy and paste.

I just went to www.google.com and typed in "most important organic" and this was the first site that came up on the list.

We live in So Cal where organics are plentiful and a great deal of the time close to the price of sprayed produce. We only buy organic produce, but we do eat out occasionally and know what we are eating is not.

Remember that even with thick skinned fruits and veggies that the ground water usually has the chemicals in them due to spraying and rainfall, so it does get into the roots of the plant/tree/shrub.

Hopefully one of these days <how often do I say those words?> we will have more organic farms and everyone will have access to reasonably priced organic foods.



julie

[Sahara]

I read in the Super Baby Food book that bananas have porous skin, so it's better to buy organic. That's the first place I've ever heard that, and I don't know where she got that information.

[bunny's mama]

in addition:

soy
tomatoes
potatoes
corn

these are the most commonly geneticly modified crops in the US. buying organic assures no GMO. but of course, you gotta also be careful of not buying htese things WITHIN other products (i.e. corn oil, corn flake cereal, soy milk, edamame, soy burgers, tomato sauce, potato chips, etc.)

[jasnjakesmama]

Geez
What can we eat?
Scary. I just wish all this stuff wasn't so much more than regular food. It's not fair.

~Jennifer

[woldkill]

If you eat soy products, this should be your first concern...

[heartlight]

For those interested in buying straight from the farm, check out http://www.biodynamics.com/usda/. This website shows you a listing of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms by state. We have belonged to an organic (not all are!) CSA for the past three years and it is the best thing we have ever done! (Many CSA's that aren't certified organic may be in the process of becoming certified or use very limited chemicals -- find out!)

The way it works is you buy a share of the harvest before the season begins. That way you share the risk and bounty with the farmer and each week during the season (usually a 20 week summer season) you pick up (or some places deliver) a portion of whatever is harvested that day. At "our" farm, Terry's Berries in Tacoma, WA, we receive an incredible variety and abudance of the freshest, tastiest, most wonderful vegetables and berries and apples that I drive an hour each way once a week to participate. My 3 year old dd will eat the veggies from the farm that she wouldn't even look at if they came from somewhere else!

We also have the option to get fresh flowers that we pick ourselves, fresh organic eggs and fresh organic chickens. Often you can work on the farm if you prefer that to buying a share. Our farm offers a discount for picking your own beans, peas and berries (and I think it will be great fun to do that this year with dd!).

It is so satisfying to support a local farmer, get fabulous, fresh, organic produce, and it is also an incredible savings compared to if you were to buy the same amount of organic produce from the store. It is just the best! Check it out!

[srain]

Because hormones and poisons bioaccumulate as they move up the food chain, we are very careful to only feed our son organic eggs and dairy products. We generally buy whatever we can organic, but those are non-negotiables. Because our son is addicted to cow's milk, this makes our gorcery bill VERY high.

Organic bulk grains aren't too much more expensive than non-organic, so you can probably afford to at least switch over to organic rice, flours, and oats.

It's hard- our budget can't afford all organic either. We're hoping we can grow some of our own this year to make up for it.