ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIC FOODLet's look a little closer at the advantages of organic foods that you need to incorporate into your everyday life. Often the cost difference is not that much more to buy organic, so you just have to weigh out the benefits against the costs. There are also degrees in between that you can consider as a better compromise for your health. 
FRUITS APPLES The advantages of organic food purchases goes beyond the obvious non-use of pesticides and herbacides. All apples can have a chemical wax coating to preserve them longer and make them look shiny in the store. This coating may contain SHELLAC as well. If it's there, peel it! GRAPES Most grapes are grown using a wide range of chemicals. I found I had developed quite an allergy to sulfites, commonly used with grapes and wine. So buy organic! STRAWBERRIES I grew up on a farm raising strawberries in the Pacific Northwest. My Dad's favorite herbicide was DDT, which has been outlawed for years, but may still reside in the ground.That's not to say they haven't found alternative chemicals to get the job done today. Organic strawberries are more and more widely available! PEACHES, PEARS, APRICOTS & NECTARINES These orchard crops all have numerous bug and disease problems. It is difficult to grown good peaches without harmful chemicals, but it can be done. And....it is well worththe effort to find them locally. There is nothing better than a fresh peach off the tree. CHERRIES Cherries, as well, have a high pest problem for the growers. To get the lovely store looks, they are often sprayed many times with undesirable chemicals. Try to find them organic. 
VEGETABLES & GRAINS CARROTS & ROOT VEGETABLES Another caution is the soil toxicity that root vegetables are grown in. Carrots will absorb and take in minerals, pesticides, herbicides and any element that is in the soil, good or bad. Organic food farmers are required to test their soil regularly to avoid the harmful toxins. I buy only organic carrots! LETTUCE & LEAFY GREENS Leafy greens are one of the easiest veggies to grow yourself....even in pots. I love picking my own baby greens that I grow in flats (I am admittedly a garden fanatic). But, finding quality lettuce in the organic food department today is so easy and very reasonably priced. Just make it a habit to make use of the advantages of organic food! CUCUMBER Again we have the waxy coating that cucumbers are dipped in to preserve them for shipping. If you buy them waxed, please at least wash well and peel them. Or better yet, buy the Englishvariety that is packaged in plastic wrap instead of the wax coating. Naturally, organic-fresh out of your own garden or farmers market would be a better choice. FLOUR & GRAINS Most mainstream grains are grown using herbicides and some pesticides. So purchasing organically grown grains will eliminate at least this problem. The best choice would be to use organic sprouted grain products. This greatly increases nutrition when the grain seed began to grow, and reduces the body's insulin levels at the same time (lowerglycemic index). SWEETENERS & SUGAR I'm not going to address artificial sweeteners here; see food additives for these chemicals. I select the organic food form of anything as the best choice, so same goes here. First choice in advantages of organic food as a natural sweetener is stevia, organic pure maple syrup, agave nectar, and then honey. For baking I use powdered sugar, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in an organic evaporated cane sugar form. I rarely use sugar, but when I'm occasionally making a special dessert, I use these real organic sugars.
BEVERAGES There are so many options on the market today for beverages. Bottled everything! But so much of it is full of chemicals, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. And because we drink these products on a daily basis, it is even more important to consider the advantages of organic food. So I mainly drink purified water (not in plastic bottles) and herbal teas. There is so much truly nutritional good in tea, such as antioxidants, that it must become a part of everyday life. My favorite it White Tea, then Green Tea. The occasional coffee I have, because I really do love my coffee, is organically and ethically grown. I'm not so concerned if it's an organic food product here, but the amount of chemicals it contains. MEAT & DAIRY CHICKEN & TURKEY The advantages of organic food is most important in the meat category. It was nearly a year after my hysterectomy and uterine cancer treatment before I began eating organic poultry again. The reason we cut it out altogether, was not just the added hormones they give poultry, but the natural hormones they have. Eliminating any additional hormones from food sources was very important, since my cancer was hormone related. Makes sense! So now I eat mainly organic chicken & turkey, 3-5 times per week. It is my 2nd favorite protein type. BEEF & PORK Oh my......I was raised on a cattle farm and we ate huge amounts of beef and pork every day!!! Of course, we did not inject our cattle with growth hormones, and grew our own feed, but we used pesticides on much of it. But I formed the habit of eating too much per serving, and too often per week. No moderation here! It was a full 2 years after surgery before I touched beef, and nearly 3 years for pork. I just felt better not eating it. Same reasons as the poultry. We were trying to eliminate outside sources of hormones, natural or not, into my diet. So the advantages of organic food purchases of meat products is really important. 
FISH & SHELLFISHYou can't really find fish as an organic food. But wild caught is better than farm raised. I began adding salmon, haddock, halibut and sole into my diet six months after the surgery. It was only 2-3 times a week, with firm guidelines. NO FARMED RAISED FISH!. You can't be sure what a fish has eaten in the wild, but you know that the chances of farm raised fish being given harmful chemicals such as antibiotics and growth hormones are fairly certain. So I just didn't take the chance. However, I showed a high mercury level in my one year after surgery blood test. To remedy this, Dr. Cora began giving me a series of intravenous chelation therapy that removed the heavy metals from my system. A side benefit was that it also reversed much of my heart problems by cleaning out my arteries. I still have them yearly to date. Fish is my favorite protein choice, so I still try to choose wild caught fish over meat and poultry. I feel the best, physically, on a vegetarian menu, but I really like my meat. So, again, moderation is the key to balancing a healthful life and knowing the advantages of organic food puts you a step ahead of the bunch! MILK & YOGURTI immediately switched to organic soy or almond milk after my surgery. I have always had an allergy to dairy products. Eliminating them that first year really cleared up my sinuses and I was breathing much more deeply. I found soy and almond easy to integrate into my daily cooking, and ideally you should make them yourself. But there are many packaged good ones available, you just have to try them until you find what you like. Today I have dairy on occasion and in moderation, dairy yogurt being the one I most use as I prefer it's taste to soy yogurt. The high protein content of Greek yogurt is high among the advantages of organic food when keeping a mainly vegetarian diet. CHEESE Oh boy do I love fat! Not on me, but in my food! So cheese has always been a problem for me (that's why it has it's own category!). It is so high in fat......but it tastes so gooood! I attempt to use the soy cheese for most things, and use the best form of dairy cheese which I believe to be feta cheese, then mozzarella for salads and pasta dishes. But I find soy cheese lacking in taste and texture. So again, moderation when it comes to things I really love. I just can't have it everyday.....or every week! I make an occasion out of it, and use as little as possible to satisfy a craving! But realizing the advantages of organic food brands and putting them one by one into practice in your meal planning will bring you big rewards in your health.
So that covers my views about the advantages of organic food and their part in my everyday diet. To add to them, I try to cook everything from scratch! All those convenient little boxes, cans, and packages contain more chemicals to preserve them than you would believe. *****I judge packaging this way...if it has more than 5 ingredients and a bunch of long chemical names I can't pronounce...I DON'T BUY IT!
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