eat more organic

Hey, has anyone seen the movie “The Real Dirt on Farmer John?”
If not, it’s an interesting one. I love that they create at the end an organic farm that a community of people (who during the week live in the city) all own shares in. They all work together, each owning a part, to make it a success. I wish there was something like that around here.

i gotta start this one… or do more with it. i had somee all natural beer the other night and it Fed me right up. so maybe it was that it wasnt organic? cuz FUCK im like hung over for a month? at least thats what it feels like… no more beer for me…

Now that we are deep into spring and summer is coming up, I find more organic products available. Getting back to basics in my diet has helped, and I can shop for simple foods, pay a little more but consume less. I am not totally organic yet. I am fully switched over to vegetables, dairy, sprouts, teas and flours. Halfway on fruits and meats. Not at all on snacks.

Everything I see, read, or hear about eating organic makes it seem like the only smart thing to do, and when you begin to look at the possibility of eating organic, seasonally, and locally, you feel like you can have a real impact on the community around you. When I read that the US exports 1.4 million tons of potatoes at the same time it imports 1.1 million tons of potatoes, and that crabbers off Alaska ship crabs to China and China ships crabs to the US, and that French cornichon growers are going out of business because French companies can buy cornichons cheaper from India, and that watermelons and asparagus available here in January were grown and shipped from 1,500 miles south, in another hemisphere, I cannot take my casual trips to the grocery store for granted anymore. I think in small steps I will begin to break myself of the mold the big producers have pressed us into, and make better choices focusing on organic, sustainable, fair trade, seasonal and local foods.

Everywhere I go conventional foods are less expensive than organics. I know some of the reasons whey this is so, but it doesn’t help my wallet. So I’ll begin by accepting that on some things, I have to spend more, but buy and consume less, and use more effectively.

When i can afford to shop places like wild oats. But towards the end of the month when money gets a little tighter i find myself eating the dollar menu and macaroni and cheese type foods more than i should. I need to find a better balance here.

It’s harder when living with someone else who does most of the grocery shopping. We’re currently looking into joining a CSA and have started hitting more and more of our local farmer’s markets. I’m going to try to keep thus goal up, because not only is it good for me, but it also makes me feel better. :)

And I got a lot of really good organic foods. Lots of fruits too, a few veggies also. I’m excited about getting into a habit of this. I feel so much better when I eat foods that are good for me instead of packed full of chemicals.

Definitely worth the try. With all the crap that goes into foods nowadays, it’s almost scary. My question is…how come something that’s so bad for you tastes so good? And why does America with all their health issues make you pay more to eat healthier? You’d think the insurance companies would have our backs in the food production costs and lower organic prices!!!

Is it actually healthier for me? I do believe so. I can certainly tell a difference now in foods that are less processed/lower sodium/lower sugar/no HFCS and foods that have those things. The ice cream we bought tasted funny the other night, and so I checked the label, and sure enough, HFCS. Same thing with the new brand of yogurt we tried. The damn stuff is everywhere. So frustrating. But it’s encouraging that my palate has developed to be able to detect this stuff.

By making these choices, I’m simultaneously removing lots of transfats and chemicals (most of which are in all probability neutral in affecting my health, but as long as the bad ones are eliminated, I can live with eliminating the neutral ones as well) from my diet, AND have vastly increased my fiber and low-glycemic carbs intake and decreased my overall sugar and fat intake. And I don’t want to say that I’ve lost 20 pounds by changing my eating habits alone, but it has certainly helped.

Lots of foods and snacks that I used to get cravings for—-well, now when I get a craving for one, I also get this niggling feeling that I’m not going to like how it will taste if I give in. Then I do give in and I totally don’t enjoy it and never buy it again. So in effect, I’ve ‘grown out’ of a lot of the unhealthy foods that I used to have as treats. It’s not that I have to resist eating Butterscotch Krimpets, it’s that I try to eat one and wonder how I ever could have enjoyed it as much I remember I did (and I enjoyed them quite a bit, every day for years!)

So while everything I’m eating isn’t organic, by making the effort, developing a consistent label-checking habit, and buying LESS food (b/c organic stuff is expensive, yanno, and I ain’t rich), I’m basically changing the whole way I eat. And the change has been universally in favor of my health.

Thus, although there’s more I want to do in this area, such as finding a source for humanely raised meat, I’ve changed my lifestyle and I’m satisfied enough with the progress I’ve made to mark this off the list. Work will continue, but the lion’s share of developing the habit has been done.