The Healthy Eating Site

The organic philosophy is one of nourishing the soil in a natural way, by putting goodness back into it and encouraging the natural microbes and worms and other life that should be living in healthy soil, as well as avoiding chemical poisons in the form of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Therefore, supporters of organic farming practices say that the benefits of organic produce to consumers is more nutritious produce and absence of harmful chemicals found in commercially grown produce. Of course, organic growing methods also provide many benefits to the environment, which ultimately benefits us too.

But given that it’s often harder and more expensive to find organically grown produce, is it worth the extra effort and cost?

In one of New Zealand’s wine growing regions herbicide use now covers 70% of the soil area. 60% of herbicides have known cancer-causing agents… and that’s just what we know about, what science has had the time and inclination to study and provide proof of. So, even though you may be drinking a glass of red wine every day to prevent heart disease, at the same time you could be putting carcinogens into your body. I’m just using red wine because I recently saw the statistics on herbicide use in wine growing. I could have used any of the many foods that provide health benefits as an example. Once you’ve tallied up the good and bad - is there still a health benefit?

Well, yes. You have to eat after all, and the choices you make will affect your health, for better or worse. Choose well, and you’ll be better off than if you didn’t. But what if you could go one better and instead of taking two steps forward and one step back, you could get rid of the poisons and carcinogens in the foods you eat entirely? What if you ate organic produce, would it really make a difference to your health?

We are dying of cancer, heart disease, a whole slew of diseases brought on by obesity. What we eat is killing us… and the perfect irony is that what we eat can also save us. It’s as simple as that. No need to synthesize and manufacture drugs (with adverse side effects), no need for extreme treatments like radiation therapy. Fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains have the nutrients and chemicals in them that can fight the major diseases that are killing us, help slow the degeneration associated with aging. Yet, as standard practice we poison most of the food we grow with chemicals that will kill us. And we humans think we’re more clever than all the other animals? Yeah right!

Over 400 pesticides are regularly used in commercial farming. While the amount of residue of these pesticides on the food you eat varies with the type of food, non-organic food is often found to have pesticide residue. So yes, if you’re eating non-organic food you’re consuming chemicals whose purpose is to kill something.

Many studies have been done on organic foods, most have found that organic fruit and vegetables have a higher nutritional value. They contain more vitamin C, essential minerals and significantly more antioxidants (cancer-fighting substances). In fact, one study showed that plants produced more flavonoids (compounds that have powerful antioxidant properties) when the plant was subjected to environmental stressors - like a pest attack.

“If an aphid is nibbling on a leaf, the plant produces phenolics to defend itself,” says Alyson Mitchell, Ph.D., a food scientist at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the paper. “Bitter or harsh phenolics guard the plant against these pests.”

So organic produce is significantly better from both a nutritional standpoint as well as one of reducing the amount of harmful chemicals we ingest. I know it’s not always easy to buy all your food organic. Ask around and look through your local paper, ring your local health food shop and see if anyone is offering an organic produce delivery service.

For every food where you can find an organic replacement you are going to be doing your body good. Keep in mind that you can grow your own sprouts (organically). If you can find organic flours you can replace many different foods by making your own bread, pizza and crackers. Every little bit helps. Remember to wash and scrub your non-organic produce to get as much of the chemical residue off as possible.

The recipes on this site are not going to specify organic ingredients - I’ll leave it up to you to do what you can, and strive to improve as you can, by replacing as much of the food you eat with organically grown food. Of course there’s always the option I’ve taken - to grow your own, organically of course. Even if you are in an apartment or flat, there are still steps you can take - starting with growing your own sprouts. Sprouts are so quick and easy to grow, they don’t take up much space, and they pack so much nutrition there’s really no reason not to grow your own. If you want to progress from there (or you’re not a fan of sprouts) you might want to try growing your own herbs and salad greens using something like the Aero Garden systems, which make it easy to grow in a compact space.

Related products you might be interested in:

• Aero Gardens