Choosing Organic

There is a lot of buzz these days about organic foods. There's a whole new vocabulary as well, including terms like "free range" or "wild caught." If you do decide to start including more organic products in your family's diet, you may find that your grocery bills are a little bit higher. This month, AccentHealth gets some advice on how to decipher that organic lingo and how to make the most of your money when it comes to buying organic.

If you look through any store, you can find "organic" anything … organic grapefruit, organic kiwi, grapes, mangoes … it's everywhere … but at the end of the day, which organic products are the best options on which to spend your money? Urvashi Rangan of Consumer Reports tells us, "People don't have unlimited amounts of money to spend, and there's often as much as a 50% premium associated with organic foods. Some vegetables and fruits contain higher levels of pesticides and residues than others, so if you want to get the most value for your organic buck, buying organic versions of those can be best. Apples and peaches, for example, have been shown to have very high pesticide residue levels, so those are great examples of fruits that you might want to choose organic."

Urvashi also explains what organic means when it comes to meat. "Organic meat production is very significant in terms of value added. The animals don't eat animal by-products. They don't receive antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones, or steroids. They eat all-organic diets from vegetables that were grown organically. There really is a lot of value to buying organic meats."

People are very concerned about the safety of their seafood. Urvashi tells us, "I think that a lot of people are looking for more natural seafood. Here are the key labels when you're trying to decipher that … 'wild caught' means that a particular seafood was fished from the ocean, whereas 'farm raised' means that it was generally raised in a fish farm."

Urvashi tells us that it is critically important to buy organic when you're buying baby food. She says, "Scientific studies have shown that children who eat fruits and vegetables that are organic and who drink organic juice actually have less pesticides floating in their bodies than kids who don't." Although parents may worry that they are paying more for each and every jar that they buy, Urvashi explains, "It is true that organic can often carry a hefty premium but if you shop around, especially for baby food items, sometimes you only spend a few more cents on the dollar for every jar of baby food."

If you're overwhelmed by all of the options and label reading, remember that you don't have to change everything you eat. One pediatrician, Dr. Alan Greene, the author of Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care, suggests some easy ways to increase the amount of organic food in your children's diet and your own diet with just a few changes to what you buy. His top picks include milk, potatoes, peanut butter, baby food, and ketchup.

From: http://www.accenthealth.com/features/200802/