What is All the Rage with Organic Eating?

The buzz is all about organic food these days. Everyone is concerned about the importance of eating only organic, or at least to eat organic whenever possible. The highest nutritional value in our foods comes from organic foods. Wherever we turn we are seeing ads for detoxing our body. “Rid your body of toxins and feel 20 years younger are the claims being made about eating organically. So what exactly does organic mean, and how does eating organic improve our health?
Organic foods are grown with no poisons. They are natural foods that have been grown with more conscious care for the health of the soil, the plants, and the people who will eat them. Over 100 studies have found that the nutritional quality of organic foods far surpasses that of conventional product. Why take a chance and risk exposing yourself, and your children to chemicals that could destroy their health? Choose organic, choose natural, and you choose health. Scientist have proven in many studies that organic food choices have far superior nutritional quality than conventional food choices. They have also proven that foods grown with pesticides are definitely linked with disease and deaths for humans and animals.

Danish researchers who conducted a study investigating the effects of mixtures of several pesticides on the sex organs of male rats, found some very disturbing evidence of impact on the formation of sexual organs. They noted that the chemicals, including phthalates (di(2-ethylhexyl) or DEHP), which is commonly used in products such as IV bags, carpets, and wallpaper caused reproductive deformities. Each month dozens of new pesticides, cleaners, fertilizers etc…show up in local supermarkets and other retail stores. These products, advertised heavily are purchased and used and thus the destruction of the earth continues. Virtually all fruits and vegetables have been genetically modified by man to become more disease resistant. A food manufacturer, or for that matter a farmer, is in business and has to sell more of his product and produce that product at a lower cost to make money. He has to find a way to produce the most of the product in the shortest amount of time at the lowest cost to make the highest profit. The answer to his question is to mess with mother nature and change these natural fruits and vegetables with some man-made concoction that came out of a laboratory so that they grow bigger and faster totally against the natural course of things, and are resistant to disease. So through genetic modification, your all natural carrot let’s say is no longer all natural, it is really a man made product. Jack LaLanne said it best. Jack LaLane is an incredible human being. He is in his nineties; he is vibrant, healthy and strong. He doesn’t get sick. He is a dynamic, healthy individual. Jack says: “If man made it, don’t eat it.” That’s the bottom line. What you put in your mouth should be as close to as nature intended as possible.

Virtually everything that you put in your mouth has pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, growth hormone, genetically altered material, or chemical food addictives. Even when you eat an apple you are taking in all the deadly chemicals that were used in the growing and harvesting of that apple. All of our fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds are grown with highly poisonous chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Many have been genetically modified, turning them into poisonous material. Even when you consume fresh fruits and vegetables, you are ingesting small amounts of poisons. The same applies in the meat industry, dairy farmers, and even fish which was always deemed as a healthy protein is very high in toxin chemicals to make the fish grow unnaturally fast and larger.

The addictives being put in the food are unnatural, toxic chemicals. They adversely affect the body, they suppress your immune system making it more susceptible to disease, they make you age quicker, and they turn your body from the natural alkaline pH state to the acid pH state, which means you can easily be prone to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, etc.,etc.,etc. Not only are these chemical addictives toxic, when they are put into the food the processing of the food strips away much of the nutritional value. There are over 15,000 toxic chemicals that are allowed to be added to food without being listed on the label. Many of the diseases that people have today can be attributed to the toxins we are innocently putting into our bodies daily. Although the FDA says it is not harmful to ingest these toxins in small amounts, they don’t take into consideration what these small amount of toxins do to us as we ingest them daily and they begin to accumulate in our cells and we are not eliminating them as rapidly as we are ingesting them.

So what can we do to eliminate some of the toxins we are putting in our body? How can we maintain vibrant health and live a longer fuller life? Well you don’t need to radically change your entire lifestyle, or give up enjoying the pleasures of eating out with friends. Even just the slightest adjustments to your diet can radically improve some of your major health concerns and you can drastically heal some of your illnesses with minor changes to your diet. Let’s see how this all works.

When you eat organic foods, you provide your body with vitamins, minerals, filtered water, and much more. These provide us with vital foundations for health. Most food sold in stores is grown with pesticides and toxins. Organic foods are grown with no poisons. They are natural foods that have been grown with more conscious care for the health of the soil, the plants, and the people who will eat them. Over 100 studies have found that the nutritional quality of organic foods far surpasses that of conventional produce.

Organic food is now more readily available, and it is becoming more affordable. While buying and eating organic food helps our bodies, its consumption may help our planet even more. Organic farmers use less energy, less water resources, and NO pesticides.

Eating organic is one opportunity to choose a path of optimum health, lowering our risk of heart disease and cancer that seem so rampant these days. The number of Americans who buy organic food “has grown at a rate of about 20% a year over the past 12 years” says Katherine DiMatteo, Executive Director of the Organic Trade Association, which represents the organic industry in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Research shows that organically produced fruits and vegetables have higher levels of minerals and healthy cancer-fighting phytochemicals and antioxidants than their conventionally grown counterparts. The increased levels of antioxidants and phytochemicals make for more flavorful food. Organic produce has a lower water content than conventionally grown, making the flavors more true and concentrated. Many varieties of organic produce are grown specifically with flavor in mind. Taste is more often an afterthought in industrially farmed produce, with considerations like shelf life, ease of shipment, and uniform appearance taking precedence. Eating organic foods also lowers the risk of toxic chemicals in the human body. Because of the widespread use of agricultural chemicals in food production, people are constantly exposed to levels of pesticides residues through their diet. Many people seem unaware that when eating industrially produced meat, and or dairy products, they are also ingesting unwanted antibiotics, hormones, and other food additives. Eating industrially prepared meat and dairy products can compromise your ability to fight off sickness and disease.

Keep all of this information in your mind when shopping in your local supermarket. Look for and buy organic whenever possible and available. Just recently, Michelle Obama began digging up a patch of the South Lawn of the White House to plant an organic vegetable garden to provide food for the first family and, more important, to educate children about healthy, locally grown fruits and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become national concerns. Michelle Obama gives us the advice when she says to begin in your own cupboard, by eliminating processed food, and try to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables. This is excellent advice that everyone should follow.

If you are unsure if you can make these changes, then start small. Eat one organic apple everyday. Notice if any symptoms you are experiencing begin to fade. Buy organic lettuce and tomatoes and make a salad every evening. Keep adding additional organic vegetables to your salads. Choose meats and chicken that are not raised conventionally with use of hormones and antibiotics. Notice how much better your feel after eating a meal with no toxins that wreak havoc on your health. Little by little incorporate small changes in your diet until it becomes second nature. If it comes in a box, bag, can or package, don’t eat it. Or if that is not always possible, then look on the label to see if it is 100% organic. Read the labels, and if you cannot pronounce the ingredients then put it back. Be conscious, be healthy and live a longer and fuller life with greater health, energy and vitality.