Green month! - Eating organic

This carrot was NOT organic. Full of hormones ... given to us by our neighbors.

Here's one my MY organic carrots next to the ones our neighbors gave us. What are they doing to our food????!!!!

Today I want to go over the importance of eating organically. It's not only better for the earth, but it's imperative in the fight for our health and against cancer. Tomorrow I will go over the most important things to eat organically (if you have to choose), and why it doesn't end with fruits and veggies. Meats & dairy count too!

Here are some hard facts to digest.

Each year, and average of 911 lbs of pesticides go into our conventional crops. For those of you who don't know what conventional is, conventional are foods grown non-organically. I will be using this term when describing all foods non-organic. These pesticides never go away, they remain in our soil, in our drinking water, in our oceans, in our bodies, and the numbers continue to grow.

Why is this bad for our bodies?
1. By the age of 5, the average American child will have digested an ENTIRE LIFETIME of carcinogenic pesticides just from their food alone. This doesn't even count the cleaning product chemicals we talked about the other day.

2. More than half the country (38 states) are drinking contaminated tap water, which is laden with these pesticides.

3. In one year, the number of contaminated fish in US rivers and streams considered unsafe to eat, jumped 26%, and that was 15 years ago. Our food is being destroyed. It's being poisoned from the ground up. The nutrients within our food are dwindling.

4. Pesticides are being linked to the rapid rise in breast cancer. Rates have increased from 1 in 20 to 1 in 8 women in the past 40 years. This is the case for prostate cancer, as well.

5. Studies have evidential proof that pesticide (and toxic chemical exposure from our deadly cleaning and pet products) are linked with significantly increased cancer, birth defects, and diseases of the reproductive, immune, and neurological systems.

6. For all the folks who treat their lawns with chemicals, studies prove that children under 14 had 4 TIMES THE NORMAL RISK of connective tissue disorders. Pets exposed to these chemicals are twices as likely to die from cancer, mainly malignant lymphomas.

7. Parkinsons is now being linked directly to pesticides by numerous studies

8. Each year, an estimated 300,000 conventional farm workers were made ill by pesticides and 67 million birds die each year, as well as 6-14 million fish from pesticides alone

9. Only 1% of imported fruits and vegetables are tested for illegal pesticide residues. Eat local!

10. Each year there are 1 million human pesticide poisonings ending in 20,000 deaths

I don't want you to be one of them! I always hear people say "eating organically is too expensive". I beg you to look at it this way, a few cents more for each organic item you buy could save you thousands in medical bills later. My daughter was in the hopital for 34 days, and the bills totaled a quarter of a million dollars. Cancer and other diseases last longer than a month and will cost thousands (if you have insurance) or millions (if you don't).

There are options for you to purchase organic at a cheaper rate. Local farm markets are often organically grown produce. Most small farms can't afford to go through the three step process to get an organic certification, but they do practice organic farming. Plus, eating locally prevents thousands of pounds of fossil fuels from going into the environment each year.

In Lakewood, I did some digging and found an awesome program called "City fresh". Each wednesday I pre-pay $25 for the following wednesday and I pick up a huge bagfull of fresh local vegetables. They set-up at the library right down the street. It's a great little community event full of people, fresh foods and great energy. The produce is so cheap, I could never buy that much conventionally grown produce from a grocery store. Also, you eat seasonally, meaning, the veggies grown reflect what your body needs during that time of year. Earth knows best.

The program ends in fall, and at that point I shop at our local grocer (shout out to Nature's Bin!) who focuses on local first and has plenty of organic choices! Buy ONLY WHAT YOU KNOW YOUR FAMILY CAN EAT. Don't go crazy and buy everything because it's so pretty :) and end up throwing half of it into compost or landfills. Be conservative. It's better to buy less and be able to go back than to buy too much and throw away money.

Stay tuned for the top choices when it comes to buying organic. Until then, stay healthy and happy! But, above all, a positive attitude can make all the difference in your health.