Clean 15 and Dirty 12

Buying the Right Foods

The definition of organic food – Food produced by methods that comply with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming in general features practices that strive to cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. These farms undergo government inspection and approval to begin and are frequently monitored to ensure the farms are following the strict regulations.

These standards prohibit the use of:

-        -  Poisonous synthetic fertilizers and pesticides

-        -  Sewer sludge fertilizers

-        -  Genetic engineering

-        -  Growth hormones

-        -  Irradiation

-        -  Antibiotics

-        -  Artificial ingredients

-        -  Synthetic additives

When it comes to the quality and nutritional value of our produce we need to focus on two major components; the number of pesticides/herbicides used and level of genetic engineering. Let’s begin with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). There is a large misconception with GMOs. To begin, the majority of the produce today has been genetically modified at some point throughout its lifetime. Without it most of our favorite fruits and veggies wouldn’t be as edible as they are today. Examples include bananas, watermelons, eggplants, peaches, apples, carrots and corn. These were either too tart, too seedy, or didn’t have enough “meat” to consume until they were modified. However, the type of GMOs we are encountering today are modified to resist pesticides and herbicides allowing companies to spray these toxic chemicals on our foods at an alarming rate. (Roundup applications have increased 15x over the past twenty years and pesticide use has increased by 404 million pounds since the introduction of GMOs back in 1996, yuck!) The best way to avoid GMO is to buy organic. When labeled 100% organic the food will be completely GMO-free, and if labeled “organic” it contains no less than 95% organic ingredients.

If you are skeptical whether organic produce is healthier than regular produce. Here are a couple recent studies. Newcastle University from the UK (2007) showed organic foods contained higher levels of zinc, vitamin c and iron – up to 40%. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2003) confirmed that organically grown corn and berries contained higher amounts of vitamin c and polyphenols-antioxidants and were shown to reduce cardiovascular diseases. Lastly, organically produced food reduces pesticide exposure by 90%, RMIT University (2014).