ORGANIC FOODS (Obviously NRR)
pacman
1,114 Posts
So my parents took a trip to North Carolina to visit with my aunt and uncle. My aunt and uncle switched to all organic food. My mom said she lost about 6 lbs by just eating healthy. My wife and I have been considering it. So, health buffs, help me out.....1. Is eating nothing but organics healthy for you or would you also need to take supplements? I know, this sounds like a dumb question, but I'm totally ignorant when it comes to this.2. It's more expensive from what I hear....is this true?3. Any recommendations on brands? 4. What do I look for specifically label/ingredient-wise?5. is free range meat better than what you get at the usual grocery stores and what's the difference?6. any good websites with info?I figured I gotta work and it'll take me a while to research, but I know some of y'all out there can answer most of these.
Comments
Pac,
Organic food is more expensive, but worth it. I always buy organic when I have the choice.
There are LOTS of brands of organic foods. You just need to do some research and see what you like. Kashi cereal is dope. I eat it all the time. A big key to eating well with organic foods is eating lots of FRESH organic produce and not so much processed food. See if there are any farmers markets in your area and check out their organic produce.
You can get free range meat at any good grocery store. NEVER SHOP AT SAFEWAY! Safeway are some evil bitches. Free range meat is raised different than regular grocery store meat. Free range animals are raised on big open farms and are able to run around thus producing much healthier animals. Free range meat is also not full of antibiotics and other drugs.
yes, it tastes beter and has no wierd hormones etc, but see above
Plaese to do your homework hommie. This will get you started...
Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez
Born: March 31, 1927
Died: April 23, 1993
Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American labor activist and leader of the United Farm Workers. During the 20th century he was a leading voice for migrant farm workers (people who move from place to place in order to find work). His tireless leadership focused national attention on these laborers' terrible working conditions, which eventually led to improvements.
Read lables. Look out for GMOs, MSG, partialy hydrogenated anything, and cholesterol. Try and avoid them at all costs. It sounds like your still going to be eating meat so there's no way to avoid cholesterol completely, just pay attention to how much you eat. There's really no need to be ingesting any of those 4 things I mentioned. Even cholesterol because your body makes its own anyway.
Omega3s are good.
Don't believe the protein myth. We don't need very much in our diets at all. And too much is not good because the body cannot store extra protein (unlike fat) so it dumps all the extra in the form of waste. When this happens it takes a bunch of valuble nutrients with it. Milk does not do a body good, unless it's in very moderate doeses.
Fruit, veggies, and nuts are good.
my wife and me always get organic wherever possible. cut out your dairy intake, eggs too.
You should avoid chain stores period! I only shop at locally owned stores here in Seattle. Safeway has a LONG history of treating employees in a terrible manner. The company???s employees, including clerks and cashiers, have been forced to accept large pay cuts or no pay increases while new workers were brought in.
Safeway also has a long history of buying non union produce that was picked by Mexican migrant workers who were payed very little to work in bad conditions with no benefits.
TRuth... even proponents of organics will tell you that that its most important for your produce to be as fresh and as local as possible, before organic...
have the cheepest organics
Birdman9, your wife is correct, big dc lobbying moves
to squash organics & also vitamins & herbal suppliments
but that is a good thing if you can afford.
try seitan, use it in a stir fry instead of chicken or beef. alot of meat eaters like this meat substitute.
start drinking soymilk. plain is my favorite! vanilla gets checked out once in a while.
once you go organic it is hard to go back. organic vegetables taste so much better!!
as far as brand names are concerned, check for whatever is made closest to your city/area. all of my favorite brands are located in my state or nearby- natural ovens, simple soyman, bla bla bla bla
if you live in la(or chicago), definitely hit up trader joes. they have the cheapest prices, same good groceries. whole foods is doing it in chicago, a store will open in milwaukee next year.
the higher prices lead way to buying only the essentials (which is the real key to weightloss) over eating is still over eating- organic food or not. i'm sure your $75 grocery bag will help you out in this respect.
like whoa Whoadie!
~Crates
1. Is eating nothing but organics healthy for you or would you also need to take supplements? I know, this sounds like a dumb question, but I'm totally ignorant when it comes to this.
Organic is an increasingly loose certification that a food is grown or processed without pesticides and hormones. It is argued that organic produce and animal prducts have higher degrees of vitamins, minerals, nutrients.
2. It's more expensive from what I hear....is this true?
Generally, yes. Doesn't have to be too drastic.Equally important to buying organic is buying locally grown/raised from small farms (NOT agribusiness). Think about it:less distance to travel to market, picked for freshness, bred for taste (not for its ability to travel well and keep at length) and most important YOU WILL BE BUYING FOOD THAT IS IN IN-SEASON. if you want peaches year round, you are going to be getting some bullshit, poicked way before it shoulda been. Freshness is really key for maximizing nutritious benefits of produce. Like Chan said, if you can hook up with local farmers markets and CSAs (community supported agriculture) you may get better prices for superior product, as well as opt out of corporate food control that is gripping this country. you are also supporting local food security.
EAT SEASONAL, LOCAL PRODUCE and you will be doing great things.
3. Any recommendations on brands?
for produce and meats, find local farmers. if you can, go to the farms. take the kids and pick seasonal fruit. Joining a CSA makes it even easier.
processed food wise: soy and corn, go organic. if they are not organic, they are most likely genetically modified. eating GMO will include you in a nation wide experiment to test some laboratory invention. have fun!
brands: Amy's, bearitos, Muir Woods (tomato products), kashi, newmans own,the list is endless.
Avoid Morningstar- highly processed.
4. What do I look for specifically label/ingredient-wise?
No GMO (if you choose to avoid genetically modified food)
be careful of high sodium (more than 200 mg per serving) high sugar (more than 4g per serving) saturated fats (5g per serving is getting high) and transfats/partially hydrogenated oils (one of th efew things i will tell you to avoid)
A good habit is avoiding products with high frucose corn syrup and monosodiumglutamate-MSG (they are widely used ingredients in most processed foods). Avoiding those two will cut out LOTS of garbage.
5. is free range meat better than what you get at the usual grocery stores and what's the difference?
Cows are designed to eat grass. too much grain and corn and soy necessitates adding much antibiotics/hormones to keep them going. wack. Ideal is grass fed.
This ties in to free range livestock...healthier existence, rather than factory farm, unsanitary conditions. Personally, i would only eat meat from a small local farmer. the rest? highly questionable. buy top quality meat from a local source, and you will eat meat in proper proportions (partly due to cost) and hopefully taste the difference. same with cheese, milk, eggs, yogurt.....if you can afford it,buy local
6. any good websites with info?
www.themeatrix.com (not anti-meat, but anti factory farms.a great lil movie.it has a link at the end to local foods/farmers markets in your area)
www.vegsource.com (i dam not recommending vegetarianism, but this site has links to health food stores and health conscious restaurants across the country...crucial when i was traveling for two years!)
www.storewars.org (another fun movie about organic vs. factory farm foods)
I figured I gotta work and it'll take me a while to research, but I know some of y'all out there can answer most of these.
revolution through food.
crucial
true, big pharmaceutical companies clamped down....herbal remedies are abou tto be taboo in this country.
organics may not get squashed (it is the fastest growing sector of the food market every year), but the organic certification process WILL get watered down and coopted by big business.
BUY LOCAL FOOD
think of gandhi leading people to the sea to make their own damn salt and not buy the brittish colonialists salty bullshit.
tdub- whatchu know about 'lightlife'
they make smartdogs and gimme lean, and I'm hoping you're gonna say they're somehow better than morningstar (which I already avoid)
although they have generally better ingredients than morningstar, they are very high in sodium, so dont overdue it.
also, ive been trying to not eat too much soy product....gives me gas if i rely on it too much.
Organic Produce----most essential.
No hydrogenated anything. It's already outlawed in several places around the world, it was going to be outlawed in Canada by 2007, but I think corps are fighting it. Trans fats DEFINATELY cause cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Straight up and down.
RICE MILK is way better for you than Soy Milk. Soy milk is acidic and causes suppression of the thyroid gland, which can cause you to feel sluggish and lethargic when outta whack. Rice milk is neutral. Japanese whenever serving tofu/tempeh dishes would serve Sea Vegetables like Dulse, Arame, etc.....because Iodine is what your thyroid needs for proper balance, and is found in high amounts in sea vegetables. Stay away from Kelp because it's too high in Iodine.
When you go to a coffee spot, ask them to start carrying organic/fair trade.
PROTEIN----depending on weight/exercise levels you should be getting at least 30 Grams each meal. that's at least 90 a day.
take a green drink---get some Greens +
take a high quality multi/vitamin mineral supplement in capsule form if possible with chelated minerals, especially If you live in a big city take extra Vitamin C in Esterified form----called Ester-C. So much smog, It's kinda expensive, you can try Quest brand's multi/vitamin mineral timed release with chelated minerals....not too much.
Drink water through a Reverse Osmosis Filter. Tap water is terrible for you. Mineral water is good in glass bottles, but is often carbonated. You can buy an under the tap filter for less than $500 bucks, and will be well worth it, many of the bottled waters, this is what you buy, it'll be worth it in the long run.
Drink Green tea everyday----Japanese Sencha is best for you, there's tonnes of different kinds, go to a tea shop, that has loose leaf types, lots of times there will be fine looking women working there who offer you tea and will be happy to educate you. If you have a Silk Road Tea Merchant's in your city, check it out.
Stay away from regular breads, and try and find a yeast free bread, either with sprouted grains or anything not wheat. I think seitan is made outta wheat too. Try to avoid it. but it tastes great in certain dishes as a meat substitute.
Read up on some books. Power of Superfoods by Sam Graci, Fit for Life books, Eat right 4 your type (get this book and find out your blood type.)
Wear a face mask next time you dig in a dusty basement.
im not down on the 'organic' tip like some folls, but a hommay of mine is and i will cosign Vics,
shit is
SO NECESSARY
Man, knowledge is being dropped at a high rate. I appreciates it much!
I've read that the overly-processed form of soy used in a lot of american vegetarian product isn't that good for you... digestion issues being one aspect of that... I try not to eat "fake" food whenever possible...
yeah, i usually opt for ricedream rice milk...good sweet stuff, no added sugars.
cosign big time on trader joes.
if you are a broke hipster, get some organic greens at food not bombs feedings. no the freshest, but free
Guys, I hate to break up your little discussion, but this sounds kinda important if you are into, oh, I don't know, say Organic Foods or a free market economy!![/b].
Can anyone elaborate on what this might mean for consumers?
almond milk
anyway, enough of that.
if you can't buy all organic all the time here's something that might help to pick and choose:
Consumers Union, an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization rated foods based on pesticides, the levels of residues and the relative toxicity of the residues.
According to their analysis, the foods with the highest pesticide residue scores are:
-fresh peaches (U.S.),
-winter squash (U.S., fresh and frozen),
-strawberries,
-grapes (from anywhere but Mexico),
-spinach (fresh and canned),
-apples,
-green beans (fresh U.S.; canned and frozen from anywhere),
-pears,
-cantaloupe,
-tomatoes,
-potatoes
Even if you don't eat the peel, you don't necessarily remove all the pesticides as they persist in the soil and are absorbed through the roots and into the flesh of produce.
A couple of tips with non-organic foods:
-the chances of pesticides, etc. are higher for vegs and fruits not in season as chemicals are added to keep them fresh, looking good and mold-free.
-with leafy greens, peeling off the first couple of outer layers will reduce some of the pesticide intake
oh i'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but soybeans are one of the most sprayed crops there are - careful with your soy!
i disagree about organic food being solely for rich budgets.
i agree that the price needs to come down.
keep in mind: environmental and subsidy costs (our tax money) actually keep conventional produce and animal products artificially low. organics are hardly subsidized as opposed to the heavily subsidized corn, soy, meat industries. environmental costs of agribusiness translates into health costs that once again comes out of our shared taxes. IMO organic is worth the mark up.
w/organics
it is necesary to buy seasonal and buy carefully...this significantly reduces the price difference. organic carrots are still very cheap ($2 for a 5 lb. bag) and taste much better.
for those with time, community gardens are wonderful ways to grow your own produce. even small planters on fire escapes, terraces, roofs, yards can yield significant vegetables. 5 healthy collard green plants will keep you stocked for months and months.
im a go pick some right now, for free, down the block.
Yes, they can be pricey, but again if you have access to a farmer's market, support area farmers.
Here are two links that may of interest to anyone:
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf?Open
http://www.organicconsumers.org/
There's some organic milk that's very good, to the point where the 2% tastes like whole milk. So if you do consume milk, try them out. I am sure there's some organic soy milk brands as well.
http://eatwell.com/