Sunday, November 20, 2005

Moving towards Organic Food

I was always interested in eating better. I've never liked oily or greasy or fried foods (very few exceptions). I don't crave for sweets. I'm lucky that my husband is also pretty good with his eating habits. We don't buy much of the processed stuff. I can do without the chemical preservatives and massive amount of salt hidden behind those labels. Anything that can't be pronounced, anything that says white flour or refined or bleached or enriched with added nutrients, stay out of our grocery list.

If wishes were horses, I'd be eating only organic stuff.

Six Reasons to go Organic:
  1. Because I don't want all the chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, harmones, antibiotics, soil fumigants that go into the conventional foods, which would eventually find their way into our bodies.
  2. I don't want to eat genetically modified (GMO) food.
  3. Organic fruits and vegetables contain higher levels of phytochemicals responsible for the health benefits of plants.
  4. It is good for the planet; Improves the soil texture and quality and soil fertility.
  5. It doesn't slow-poison the farmers as conventional farming methods do.
  6. They taste real good! You got to try it to believe me.

But buying organic stuff can put me so much behind my budget. Since the demand for organic food does not meet the supply and Organic farming is more expensive than conventional methods and the money spent in organic farming is also directed towards improving the soil condition (which has been originally toxicated with all those nasty chemicals so far), the price of the organic foods is higher than conventional foods. We slowly started moving towards organic foods, by deciding to buy 'organic' how much ever is feasible. Buying everything organic is impossible at this timeperiod of our life, but we sure can buy whatever we can, Can't we?

Then I came across a website that had the most and the least concentrations of pesticides covered conventional vegetables. Here's a picture from the article from Grinning Planet. The article also has a printable wallet size picture.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

My goodness! Many of my favourite foods were in the high pesticide list. And I thought I was doing great by eating those vegetables. So we started buying the vegetables and fruits mentioned in the high persticide list, from organic markets.

Since the organic stuff is so darn expensive, we limit our organic splurges to certain stuff; Stuff if grown on conventional methods have plenty of everything that we want to avoid. (See reason. no.1). We buy Organic milk, cheese, eggs, carrots, spinach, apples, potatoes, oatmeal, cereal, sugar etc. The chicken we buy is not necessarily organic, but always cage free, harmone free and always grown on natural diet.

Many of the Natural Foods stores have their own cereals. They don't come in fancy packaging and yes, I'd have to pack my own stuff. But I have more control over how much I want to buy and they are pretty cheaper than what I'd pay on cereals with fancy packaging. And I got to say that the organic cereal taste so wonderful, even with the miniscule amount of sugar in it.

And have you tasted organic milk? If not, then you might want to try it? It yummmm.... like real milk. I can go on and on about the yogurt made out of organic milk. Just divine! Somebody I know, said it must be all those happy cows, that the milk is so tasty. True!

Sure, the grocery bills are huge, sometimes a bit, scary. But we never regret taking this step. We can always save elsewhere and direct that money into what goes into our body. We've cut down our other expenses to support this need. I guess, we feel so good about it because we are helping ourselves and also the earth in a teeny weeny bit, by supporting organic farmers.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Padma says
Love your organic way of life.I have to agree with every word.In fact i just do the same,buy organic save somewhere else .It felt like i am reading my own thoughts.

Kay said...

Thanks Padma! :)

Most Indians, in US, think it's stupid to spend so much money on Organic foods, exp, when a gallon of milk comes to $6-$7 whereas you can get it for around $2.50 @ sam's club. I'd rather live with more health and less artifical harmones than have more money.

Anonymous said...

HaiKay,
Thanks for the reply.I came across your site from Indira`s Mahanandi.It all started while searching for a good rasam powder recipe on Google.I was disappointed to see no comments on your MOVING TOWARDS ORGANIC FOOD.It is slowly catching up.I now see more choice in the organic produce section in the local grocery stores (I live in CT),but it is still limited.Let us hope that the awareness grows and there will be a BETTER TOMORROW.
Padma

Kay said...

Yep, not many bloggers knew this was an Indian blog when I first started this. There werent many responses initially and slowly it has picked up and I'm glad to have many blog friends now. :)

Oh! Btw, Connecticut has a lot of organic stores... Do check out trader's joes at http://www.traderjoes.com/
locations/search/CONNECTICUT.asp

They have organic and fairtrade products. I feel like a kid in a candy shop when I'm there.

Also check out, http://www.vegetarianusa.com/
city/Connecticut

Kay said...

Also, The organic section in normal grocery store tend to be very limited and horribly expensive than when bought at TJs or other natural health food stores.

Anonymous said...

Padma says,
Hi KAY,
Thanks for the info.I do my regular weekly shopping at Trader joe`s as i live about 3 minute driving distance from joe`s.I did check out Wild oats & Whole foods market.Both of them have more choice of organic produce.Unfortunately they are about 40 minute drive from where i live.So i kind of stock up when i go that side.But i am pleasently surprised to see more and more organic foods in the local supermarket(stop&shop) Which is about two minute drive from my place.I always look for USDA sign before i buy.
Btw i found many comments posted by your blog friends on other pages.I am planning to try the lime pickle.Good work!Keep it up.Looking forward for more recipes from you and Indira.

Kay said...

Thanks Padma! I'm so glad you have a TJ's nearby. :)

I'd die to be near TJs and well, with our move to Canada in about 10 days, I'll be even more further from TJs.

Take care!

Kay said...

Thanks Santhi! I'm glad to be of some help.

I have so much passion for organically grown stuff. I have a plan to retire in India, someday, with my own organic farm! :)

Anonymous said...

I came across your site from Indira`s Mahanandi.i live in mi.we moved from ny.im staying here from 2000 yr.i have boy 3yrs old.but 6 months back i searched google to know about pesticides.i was shocked
because my whole family loves higher pesticde level food.i told my hubby.he took it very easily.so i moved very slowly first started buying milk,eggs for my son. next for us.then vegetables.my son loves strawbwrry much.he is questioning that why im not buying.whole foods we dont get allways.i too buy soy beans,oats,couscous,wheat from whole foods.i forwarded message to my friend about organic they just laughs.and i fall in sick every year.they thinks im worrying too much.thanks

Kay said...

pr, I got a very long comment for you. Do drop a mail at tabtomorrow AT gmail DOT com and I'll send a lengthy reply.

Organic food need not be expensive. There are quite a number of places in MI which sell organic stuff, other than Wholefoods.

Anonymous said...

Hi
thanks for ur answer. im from hyd in india. i liked ur blog because i too do the samethings.i use only 2 tsp of oil in my currys. i dont use refined flours too. i substitute w.w pastry flours in recipes.and maple syrup for sugar,some times organic sugar.i dont have google account. thanks.
my personal e mail address srsr12308@yahoo.com

HyunChard said...

Of course it's worth it, if you're a health conscious then you'll find out the difference between their nutrition facts. Sample, organic food delivered to our house was not grown through chemicals. So there is no side effects if you swallow them.