Organic Food Facts

Eating healthy is something that most of us could stand to do a little more of. Most people think eating more vegetables and less fast food is the only way eat healthier. But now, there is another way to eat: Be healthy and go green doing it.

Most of the crop foods we consume are grown with the help of various synthetic chemicals, which remain on the fruits and vegetables we buy from the grocery. If you do not wash your fruits and vegetables, pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides are entering your body. Each chemical presents high health risks, especially in infants and children.

Facts like these can be upsetting to those eating non-organic foods. Organically grown fruits and vegetables maintain more nutrients than conventionally grown products. So, not only are these foods better for you, but they are also good for the Earth.

Organically produced meat also provides a healthy option. This kind of meat is free of supplemental hormones with which most animals are injected. Injected hormones are thought to have harmful effects on people and animals. One specific hormone is insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which has been associated with higher risk of cancer in humans. IGF-1 is a natural anabolic growth factor injected into the animal’s milk for growing purposes. Organic farming practices ban these kinds of chemicals and let the animals grow naturally.

 Often, animals are treated with high doses of antibiotics to prevent illness from spreading. Farmers tend to overuse these antibiotics, causing antibiotic resistance among people and making it hard for them to overcome illnesses from undercooked meat, contaminated soil and/or water. Eating organically farmed meats cuts the risk of this problem among humans and helps our bodies correctly react to the antibiotics we are given when we are sick.

Organically grown foods also usually have more flavor. In a taste test done by Washington State University, organically grown apples were thought to be sweeter and firmer than conventionally grown apples. 

With all of this information in tow, you might think twice when choosing between traditional or organic foods. Be warned that organically grown foods may cost a little more than conventionally grown foods. But healthcare bills are also expensive!

Click here or on the play button below to view a webcast with Sheryl Tischer as she explains why eating your green veggies is so good for you.