ORGANIC FOOD ATE MY WHOLE PAYCHECK

There is no conclusive proof that organic food is better than commercially produced food commonly available at the grocery store!

But, think about this: commercial agriculture processes geared towards mass production of food with genetic modification of seeds, synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are relatively recent in the history of our species. It makes intuitive sense that food produced in this way isn't truly "natural" and thus would confuse our internal biochemical processes. This mismatch might have something to do with the numerous diseases ( imbalances) of modern civilisation. Humans have been hunter-gatherers for 200, 000 years and farmers for only the last 10,000 years. Modern "scientific" farming has only been around for the last 100 years.

While one could argue that this is the only way we could have fed the planet's growing population with has increased almost 6 fold in the last century, the question is this: what is the health cost?

Eating healthy does not have to eat up your Whole Paycheck. According the Envirnomental Working Group ( www.foodnews.org), there are certain foods which are notoriously high in pesticide load. Surprisingly, this does not get better with washing and peeling either. The dirty dozen (which you should consider buying organic whenever possible are: Peaches, Apples, Strawberries, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Cherries, Lettuce, Grapes ( imported), Pears, Spinach and Potatoes. The cleanest 12 ( lowest pesticides) you don't need to worry about too much are: Onions, Avocado, Sweet Corn ( frozen), Sweet Peas ( frozen), Pineapple, Mango, Asparagus, Kiwi, Bananas, Cabbage, Broccoli and Eggplant.

What about animal foods like chicken, beef, eggs, fish and even farmed fish. The mass production of these animals in facilities that literally look like assembly lines is really scary. Antibiotics and hormones and regularly given to these animals in an effort to get them as plump and heavy as quickly as possible so they can be slaughtered and set up for consumption in the least amount of time and at the lowest possible cost. ( How else could they get them on the "Dollar Menu")? Significant amounts of these hormones and antibiotics are making their way up the food chain and into our bodies and wreaking havoc on our internal milleu. We see increasing levels of virulent infections in our hospitals due to drug resistence. We see hormonal imbalances in children and adults that were unheard of before. The recent movie Food Inc. does a nice job of bringing this to light.

Without necessarily thinking like an elitist, the next time you go to the grocery store, think about this: how are my choices going to affect my health, and the health of my family? What about the health of our planet: the soil and water which sustains us?What would happen if we all insisted on buying food that is in sync with our biochemistry? Could the food industry keep feeding us garbage with synthetic chemicals and hormones if we all took a stand?