kam
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 3410
posted
I received this email from Mercola.
When I first came down sick, my LLMD and others said to eat organic.
I thought it was to omit pesticides. I hadn't considered the nutritional factor would be better too.
But, now I think about it, it makes sense.
I was recently in the store and purchased the non organic tomatoes because they were a $1.00 cheaper.
In my old town, organic food was not an option. In my new town, organic is becoming more and more available and the stores are even advertising how many organic items they carry.
Just in case others are sitting on the fence with the organic, I thought I would post this to give you more information.
On the opposite side, I purchased organic butter the other day that was less expensive than the same brand that was not organic and on sale.
I found that interesting.
The debate over whether organic food is healthier than conventionally grown food may be over, according to results from a $25-million study into organic food -- the largest of its kind to date.
The four-year, European-Union-funded study found that:
Organic fruit and vegetables contain up to 40 percent more antioxidants
Organic produce had higher levels of beneficial minerals like iron and zinc
Milk from organic herds contained up to 90 percent more antioxidants
The researchers obtained their results after growing fruit and vegetables, and raising cattle, on adjacent organic and non-organic sites.
They say that eating organic foods can even help to increase the nutrient intake of people who don't eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
The UK's Food Standards Agency, which has formerly said that there is no difference between organic and conventional foods, is reviewing the research findings.
Posts: 15927 | From Became too sick to work or do household chores in 2001. | Registered: Dec 2002
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luvs2ride
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8090
posted
I can taste the difference and could easily pick organic over conventional just from the taste.
I never realized organic tasted better because it was more full of flavor and nutrients.
Makes sense.
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I only eat organic now days and since I'm not working I didn't think I could afford to do this. But much to my surprise I went to a whole foods market and was able to get most things for the same price as non organic. You just have to be a smart shopper. It's an hour ride for me but at least it gives me a reason to take a little trip. And my truck is great on gas so it doesn't cost much there.
We have a health food market in town but the organic stuff there is almost 2 times as much since they don't sell the same volume.
I think organic will be a must for me even if I EVER get well.
Posts: 413 | From nj | Registered: Nov 2005
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tdtid
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10276
posted
I was one of those that only saw organic as a way of being able to charge more and why would anyone want to pay more for a similar product with all the rest of the lyme medical bills and meds we are spending money on.
But as a experiment, we bought two cartons of eggs, one the regular ones we always buy and one the organic type. My husband is even more against paying the extra than I am, so he questioned why I needed both.
I said I just wanted to know if you could TASTE a difference. Ofcourse he is going to laugh and say, "no way". So HE made me two fried eggs, cooked in the same pan with my organic butter.
I didn't watch them being cooked and he was the only one that would know which egg was which and I did a side by side taste test.
One was AMAZINGING MUCH MUCH better, but again, I could have been picking the regular egg. I just knew that ONE was WAY above the other in flavor and texture.
He told me I did pick the organic egg so I guess it's a small step for going that direction.
I find it really interesting to hear about the antioxidant properties, etc in organic, so it looks like I have to think this through even more.
Thanks for the information.
Cathy
-------------------- "To Dream The Impossible Dream" Man of La Mancha Posts: 2638 | From New Hampshire | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
We eat mostly organic in our house. The taste is superior in our opinion, not to mention that organic foods tend to pack a more powerful punch nutritionally speaking. As I've read more about genetically modified foods, Frankenfoods, and all the garbage and chemicals that are being added to the food chain -- eating organic seems to be the safest route.
Anyone interested in reading more about organic foods, or monitoring the news in the organic food industry, or finding contacts to local organic farms in your area or finding another supplier of organics, the organic consumers organization is a good place to start.
Reading their News section is enough to wake a person up as to the bad things that are being done to our food.
Fuzzy
Posts: 503 | From Maryland | Registered: Oct 2007
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mojo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9309
posted
Yes, absolutely Organic is Better, I think.
It's also better for the Earth.
We need to get back to 100% Organic.
I buy everything I can Organic even when I don't want to pay extra because the more we demand the more they will supply.
Posts: 1761 | From USA | Registered: May 2006
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Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
I used to do 100% Organic, but these days with medical bills that need to be paid off and such, it's very hard.
Where I live on some things the price is the same, but with things like butter, milk, eggs it's higher.
I can taste the difference; organic has always tasted better to me. I have to eat organic beef tho, otherwise I get sick.
Posts: 6638 | From Michigan | Registered: Jun 2001
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bejoy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11129
posted
I'd prefer to eat entirely organic if I could, but you know how it goes. I draw the line with meat and dairy. Toxins get stored in fat.
If I'm gong to eat animal fat products I want them to be as clean and chemical-free as possible.
When I occasionally try to cook non-organic meat, especially beef, it smells so bad to me in comparison that I just don't want to eat it. The same with regular store-bought eggs.
We keep backyard chickens for the eggs. Double bonus - we know where they've been, and they keep the bugs down without having to spray.
-------------------- bejoy!
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 1918 | From Alive and Well! | Registered: Feb 2007
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
We did a test a number of years ago with organic carrots vs.
non-organic. What a difference in taste! Things that are a large
quantity that are squeezed or processed seem to be important
to use organic - such as oil or juice. Since there is alot of
something being made into a smaller quantity. Sometimes non-
organic tastes better but I think it depends on the season or how
local the produce is. When fruits are picked before they are ripe,
they don't taste that great - whether they are organic or not. I
Key findings from the Environmental Working Group's latest study are as follows:
1. The six fruits that consistently have the lowest levels of pesticide residues are avocados, pineapples, mangoes, kiwi, bananas, and papaya.
2. The six vegetables that consistently have the lowest levels of pesticide residues are onions, sweet corn, asparagus, sweet peas, cabbage, and broccoli.
3. The seven fruits that consistently have the highest levels of pesticide residues are peaches, apples, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, and grapes that are imported from outside the United States and Canada.
4. The five vegetables that consistently have the highest levels of pesticide residues are sweet bell peppers, celery, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
While it is unrealistic for most of us to eat only organic produce 100 percent of the time, we can use the results of this study to guide us in choosing to buy organic varieties of those fruits and vegetables that consistently rank high in pesticide content.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
Another tidbit. The average non-organic american meal travels approx 1500 miles before reaching your plate.
Posts: 413 | From nj | Registered: Nov 2005
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Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
Here is some information on GM foods..
How do You Know if Your Food is Genetically Modified?
By Dr. Joseph Mercola with Rachael Droege
When polled only about one-quarter of Americans report having eaten genetically modified food. However, if you randomly pick an item off your grocery store's shelves, you have a 70 percent chance of picking a food with genetically modified (GM) ingredients. This is because at least seven out of every 10 items have been genetically modified.
If more Americans were aware of this fact, the polls would certainly turn out differently, but Americans are kept largely in the dark about GM products, and most are not aware they are eating these foods because there are no labeling requirements for GM foods.
This, despite the fact that there have been no studies done with humans to show what happens when genetically modified foods are consumed, and an ABC News poll (PDF) found that 92 percent of Americans want mandatory labels on GM foods.
Even more concerning is the fact that genetically modified organisms are not easily contained. The Washington Post reported "techniques for confining genetically engineered ... organisms are still in their infancy, and far more work needs to be done to make sure the new products do not taint the food supply or wipe out important species."
As a consumer, one way you can voice your resistance to these widely untested, experimental organisms is by not purchasing GM products, a task that is not easy to achieve when you consider the extent to which GM products have already saturated the American market.
There are, however, several ways to reduce your chances of eating GM foods--if you know where to look.
Buy Organic
Buying organic is currently the best way to ensure that your food has not been genetically modified. By definition, food that is certified organic must be:
Free from all GM organisms
Produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers
From an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs
However, GM crops are becoming more and more prevalent, and the spread of GM seeds and pollen is a major concern. Even organic products may be contaminated with traces of GM elements that have been spread by wind or insects such as bees.
Read Labels
GM soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically engineered crops. When looking at a product label, if any of the following ingredients are listed there's a good chance it has come from GM corn or soy (unless it's listed as organic):
Corn Derivatives
corn flour and meal fructose and fructose syrup (unless specified non-corn) corn syrup
malt baking powder (corn starch is the usual filler) malt syrup
most miso soy sauce tamari textured vegetable protein (usually soy)
teriyaki marinades tofu soy beverages soy protein isolate or protein isolate
tempeh shoyu lecithin or soy lecithin many non-stick sprays rely on soy lecithin
bread pastry margarine Mayonnaise and salad dressings also may include lecithin.
As you can see, there are many products that may contain GM soy or corn derivatives (or GM vegetable oil). Some of these products include:
infant formula salad dressing bread cereal hamburgers and hotdogs margarine mayonnaise crackers cookies chocolate candy fried food chips veggie burgers meat substitutes ice cream frozen yogurt tofu tamari soy sauce soy cheese tomato sauce protein powder baking powder alcohol vanilla powdered sugar peanut butter enriched flour and pasta Non-food items include cosmetics, soaps, detergents, shampoo, and bubble bath.
Aside from corn and soy, other GM foods grown in the United States include cotton, canola, squash and papaya.
Look at Produce Stickers
Those little stickers on fruit and vegetables contain different PLU codes depending on whether the fruit was conventionally grown, organically grown or genetically engineered. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers, organically grown fruit five numbers prefaced by the number 9, and GM fruit five numbers prefaced by the number 8.
For example:
Conventionally grown PLU: 1022
Organically grown PLU: 91022
Genetically modified PLU: 81022
In terms of fruit, another strategy is to avoid hybrid varieties, which are fruits that have been altered by humans. Typically hybrid fruits contain more sugar than regular varieties so they taste sweeter and can be picked out because generally they don't contain seeds (seedless watermelon, seedless grapes, etc.). Although there are also seeded hybrid varieties, avoiding seedless fruits is one of the more prominent ways to avoid hybrid fruits.
Avoid Processed Foods
About 70 percent of all processed foods contain genetically modified ingredients, and the food manufacturers themselves often don't know for sure whether their products contain GM elements. There are many reasons why processed foods are not optimal for your health--for instance they often contain trans fat, acrylamide and little nutritional value--so avoiding them will not only help you to cut back on the amount of GM foods you are consuming, but will also boost your health.
Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
Another from Mercola website...
Even Mice Don't Like Genetically Modified Food
Concerned that industry and government have failed to carry out proper scientific studies on the safety of GE corn and other Frankenfoods, a young Dutch science student, Hinze Hogendoorn, recently decided to take matters into his own hands.
Dr. Mae Wan-Ho, a British geneticist and world renowned critic of biotechnology, reported the results of this simple, yet remarkable animal-feeding experiment on her website www.i-sis.org in December 2001. Here are excerpts from Dr. Ho's report:
A Dutch farmer left two piles of maize in a barn infested with mice, one pile GM (genetically modified), the other non-GM. The GM pile was untouched, while the non-GM pile was completely eaten up. Incredible!
Hinze couldn't find a single scientific report on animals being tested for preference of GM versus non GM food on the web when he began. On extending his search to effects of GM foods on animals, he came across reports from companies developing GM foods, all declaring there were no adverse impacts.
But he also came across independent researchers who have reported harmful effects, including Dr. Arpad Pusztai, who found GM potatoes damaged the kidney, thymus, spleen and gut of young rats.
Hinze was stumped at first, because he would have needed to go through a lot of bureaucracy to experiment on animals. However, he managed to rescue 30 female six-week old mice bred to feed snakes from a herpetology center.
Hinze gave them a staple food along with the two foods GM and non-GE corn and soy that were to be compared, so they could really show their preference without being starved.
Large cages were used so the mice had plenty of room to move around. At the beginning, all the mice were weighed before they were put into the cages. The mice had not eaten for some time, but amazingly, they immediately showed very definite food preferences preferring the non GM corn and soy.
For the next nine weeks, Hinze continued to give the mice GM and non GM maize or soy chunks. the mice consumed 61% non GM and 39% GM food when given free choice.
For the next experiment, Hinze tested for the health effects of GM food. Over the next 10 days, he kept track of the amount of food that the two groups consumed each day, and weighed the mice, halfway through and at the end of the experiments.
The group fed GM ate more, probably because they were slightly heavier on average to begin with, but they gained less weight. By the end, they actually lost weight. In contrast, the group fed non GM ate less and gained more weight, continuing to gain weight until the end of the experiment. The results were statistically significant.
That was not the only difference observed. There were marked behavioral differences. The mice fed GM food "seemed less active while in their cages."
The most striking difference was when the mice were weighed at the end of the experiment. The mice fed GM food were "more distressed" than the other mice.
"Many were running round and round the basket, scrabbling desperately in the sawdust, and even frantically jumping up the sides, something I'd never seen before." They were clearly more nervous than the mice from the other cage. "For me this was the most disconcerting evidence that GM food is not quite normal."
Another "interesting result" is that one of the mice in the GM cage was found dead at the end of the experiment. Hinze concluded, "At the end of everything, I must admit that the experiment has done nothing to soothe my qualms concerning genetically enhanced food."
Frankencorn or Pesticides: Choose Your Poison
The hazards of genetically engineered corn, and other GE foods, are frightening. But even if global resistance were able to drive GE corn off the market tomorrow, we would still be left with a highly toxic, chemical-intensive, industrial-style system of corn production which is depleting soil fertility, poisoning municipal water supplies, and quickly turning indigenous people and family farmers into an endangered species.
Even without Frankencrops, we would still be facing an out-of-control globalization process, which is driving millions of farmers off the land and forcing desperate peasants to chop down remaining forests -- in the process driving hundreds of thousands of landraces and traditional varieties of plants, microorganisms, and animals into extinction.
Syngenta's conventional non-GE corn and pesticides are just as scary as their Frankencorn. Syngenta profits by selling corn farmers either gene-altered Bt corn or its conventional fertilizer and pesticide-intensive) hybrids, along with its super toxic weed killer, Atrazine, a known carcinogen.
Unfortunately Atrazine not only kills weeds, but also ends up as a dangerous residue in the meat and dairy products of animals that have eaten Atrazine-sprayed corn. Atrazine, along with its companion pesticides, have also polluted wells and drinking water in 97% of the communities in the US Corn Belt.
What's more dangerous, eating Bt corn, consuming pesticide residues in your Big Mac or non-organic dairy products, or drinking the tap water that comes out of your faucet?
Similarly, Monsanto is in the business of selling toxic pesticides and herbicides, whether it is to farmers growing GE crops, farmers growing non-GE hybrid crops, Roundup-spraying drug warriors in Colombia or California, or suburbanites trying to get that perfectly green lawn.
After 100 years of poisoning the public with substances like PCBs and Agent Orange, Monsanto tells us that their latest toxic chemicals such as Roundup, or their latest seed varieties, such as Roundup Ready corn are perfectly safe.
Should We Believe Them?
Or what about Cargill? They're happy to sell their chemical nitrate fertilizers (which also end up in most Americans' drinking water) to farmers, whether they are planting GE Frankencrops or just conventional industrial hybrids. Or ADM, who are happy to sell you either GE corn or non-GE corn, as long as they can drive the prices down which they pay to farmers, and drive the prices up to their "enemy," the consumer.
The solution of course to all this is to buy and eat organic food, and to buy from local and regional farmers and companies, rather than the transnational corporations whenever possible.
Mexicans can protect their health and preserve their biodiversity by boycotting gringo GE-tainted corn and buying organic corn produced by Mexican farmers cultivating traditional varieties.
US consumers similarly can protect their health, their drinking water, and their children by buying organic and local.
Fortunately this is what more and more people are doing everyday, not only in the USA but across the world. Farmers in 130 nations are now producing certified organic food for a booming market of organic consumers, making organic the fasting growing component of world agriculture.
Thirty million Americans are now buying organic food and the numbers are rising every month. Since September 11, sales of organic and natural food have increased 8%.
I have long encouraged people to listen to their bodies for guidance in seeking health. There is also wisdom in observing animals behavior to learn from their intuitive guidance.
That is what these researchers did. When they compared genetically modified corn and soy to non-GM corn and soy, the animals had an overwhelming preference for the real thing.
While I am not a promoter of either soy or corn for most humans, I believe the principles transfer over to other foods.
The negative behavioral changes that occurred in the animals are also interesting and a strong endorsement of the dangers of genetically modified food.
Genetically modified foods did not exist prior to 1995. Ninety percent of the money Americans spend on food is spent on processed foods and seventy percent of processed foods have genetically modified foods in them.
This is one other reason to avoid eating processed foods that were never good for you. The introduction of GMO food into the foods will rapidly accelerate the damage processed foods do to human health.
-------------------- God Bless You! Everything..is just my opinion. Posts: 6638 | From Michigan | Registered: Jun 2001
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