I got an email from a person asking what to do if they cannot afford organic food or organic is not available. Is eating organic food absolutely necessary to get clear? If you have a small budget are there some fruits/vegetables you should buy organic?
I’ll answer all of those questions in this post.
I know I have a tendency to rant and branch off topics occasionally. That’s why I divided this post into two section: the relevant part that answers the question and the rant about sustainability in agriculture and some problems with industrial organic foods.
Here’s the relevant part:
First, it’s not necessary to eat all organic foods to get clear. It’s better for you, but if you cannot afford organic you can still get clear. And by making smart choices you can significantly reduce your exposure to pesticides.
What can you do if you cannot afford organic foods?
The Environmental Working Group put together a ‘Shopper’s Guide To Pesticides In Produce’. They looked at 43 common fruits and vegetables and ranked them based on detected pesticide levels.
Here’s a list of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. As far as possible buy these organic.
- Peaches
- Apples
- Sweet bell peppers
- Celery
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Lettuce
- Grapes (imported)
- Pears
- Spinach
- Potatoes
The 12 least contaminated fruits and vegetables are:
- Onions
- Avocados
- Sweet corn (frozen)
- Pineapples
- Mango
- Sweet peas (frozen)
- Asparagus
- Kiwi
- Bananas
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Eggplant
According to the Environmental Working Group you can reduce your exposure to pesticides by 90% by replacing the 12 most contaminated foods with the 12 safest foods. The 12 worst foods exposes you to about 14 different pesticides a day. While the 12 safest foods expose you to on average less than 2.
You can download and print out a free copy of the guide. Keep it in your wallet. It’s a handy reference to have at a supermarket. Click here to get Shoppers Guide To Pesticides In Produce.
And the rant starts here… for those interested of these issues.
Second, I want to point out organic food is not the answer to all the problems in agriculture and food chain.
Yes, pesticides and chemicals are dangerous to your health, and yes, they harm the environment. Nonorganic agriculture is simply not sustainable. We take more from the land than it and the sun can support. Conventional agriculture is mainly ‘take’ from the land. Sustainable agriculture (be it organic or not) is give and take. With sustainable practices the farmer can make the soil healthier.
That said organic doesn’t automatically mean sustainable. Because we live in an industrial society and the way our food distribution is organized we have a branch of organic called ‘industrial organic’.
This is the type of organic food you find from supermarkets and health food store chains (such as Whole Foods).
Yes all the foods are grown without chemicals, but the farming practices may not sustainable. It may result in loss of topsoil and loss of biodiversity. Still without pesticides and chemicals they are healthier to you and to the environment than conventional produce.
Another problem with industrial organic. Foods may have traveled thousands of miles to reach you. That in itself makes them unsustainable.
Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma explains this whole issue beautifully. I recommend you read it.
Often the most sustainable way is to eat local foods as much as possible.
Finally let’s put this whole pesticides in fruits and vegetables in perspective.
Eating the most contaminated fruits and vegetables is still far healthier than eating meat and other animal products.
I’m just going to ignore all the other health problems with meat and just focus on pesticides. Animals eat huge quantities of vegetable matter to grow. The pesticides in the animal foods accumulate into the fat tissues of the animal. By eating the animal (or drinking its milk) you are expose to far higher levels of pesticides than by eating vegetables.
Organic meat is, in theory, healthier. The problem is the organic standards have been watered down by the industry. For example feedlots and factory farming can be organic. Sure, the animals eat ‘food’ that is not grown with pesticides and doesn’t get antibiotics. Still given the condition the animal grows up and the so-called food it eats, the meat is no healthier than normally produced.
Another example. Eggs and poultry can be labeled free range without the chickens ever leaving the factory farm. The only thing that’s required is access to outdoor.
In theory that sounds good. Practice is another matter.
Access just means a door to a patch of grass outdoors, outside the factory farming hall. A chicken lives 7 weeks in the factory farm before it’s butchered. That door (access) is shut for the first 5 weeks. It’s open during the last two weeks but by that time the chickens are so used to indoors they never venture out.
Never mind the chicken never sees sunlight and outdoors, it’s still labeled and sold as ‘free range’. And the package shows pictures of happy chickens merrily adventuring in lush, green fields in utter and total bliss.
Again I recommend you read Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Finding safe and healthy foods to eat in our industrial society is not so easy anymore. We can thank the agricultural industries for f***ing up our foods.
Read and become aware of these issues and you can make good, healthy and conscious choices.
Eating locally grown foods, bought from farmer’s markets is always a good choice.