Facts and fallacies of organic food

When you head to the grocery store, shopping for products like eggs, meat, fish, milk, and produce can be very tricky. Signs are posted everywhere labeling food as natural, organic, and a number of other things—but what’s the difference, really? Learning what specific names mean can help you decide if you should shell out extra money on a product of it is simply a marketing ploy.

Natural is a turn associated with a number of fruit and vegetable product. Typically, this is simple a marketing ploy to convince you to buy the product. After all, all fruits and vegetables are natural, right? Unless it’s a new kind of food that has been developed and processed, the product is natural. What you really probably want is organic. Organic foods are grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers. There are two main benefits to organic foods. First, you are helping the environment because those chemicals are not being introduced into nature. Secondly, you are avoiding ingesting chemicals and are therefore healthy more healthy foods. However, organic products are usually more expensive. If you’re on a budget, skip over organic fruits and vegetables that you can peel, like oranges and bananas. After all, once you’ve discarded the peel, you’ve also discarded the chemicals. Instead, opt for organic items like apples, where you eat the peel. No matter what you buy, however, make sure that you rinse off the food when you get home.

Another tricky label you will see is “no hormones.” This is usually in regards to milk or meat products and is false, since all animals naturally produce hormones. Hormones are what helps an animal (even a human) regulate body organs, have young, and otherwise function. All meat products have hormones. What the labels really mean is that no hormones were unnaturally given to the animal, which is sometimes done to increase milk production. Regardless of hormones, however, the milk and meat is safe for a person and not a violation of an animal’s rights.

Lastly, a label on eggs and meat can indicate if the animal was caged or penned. This does not make a difference in the quality or nutritional value of the meat, but is simply a matter of animal rights. These products may be a bit more expensive, but if you want to make human decisions, that is the way to go. Reading the label and making healthy choices can sometimes be difficult, but learning how to do so can help you make the best choices for you diet.

On the other side of the coin, there is always the big question mark as to whether are we really better off with organic food?

Proponents of organic food claim that the world would have lesser problem with mad cow disease if the cows were fed with real organic food. Surprisingly though, it was reported that quite a high number of these cows that contracted mad cow disease were bred in organic farms! Organic food business is big industry and there are signs that what used to be really organic and beneficial to health no longer seems to be the case.
I won’t be surprised if one of these days, those so-called organic foods are found to be in actual fact produced in China’s hazardous chemical and environmental polluted farms.

Organic farming used to be small-localized business that is confined to small markets. Many years way back organic farming is more of a family kind of business whereby residents plant and grow crops and breed domestic animals on their backyard gardens endow with natural futile soils. No dangerous chemical based pesticides or herbicides were ever used on crops. Most of the organic foods were meant for internal or self-consumption.

With demands for organic food on the rise, big food industries are cashing into this lucrative market segment and finding ways to mass-produce organic food on large scale basis. Excessive natural herbicides and insecticides were used on so-called organic crops. Natural herbicides, fungicides and insecticides are usually made from plant extracts and can be quite dangerous and harmful if ingest in large amount. As validated in the lab, artificial herbicides and insecticides biodegrades much faster than its natural counterpart.
Organic crops are usually grown in manure fields. Chemical fertilizers are replaced with urine and animal waste. There have been reported cases whereby the bacteria E-Coli were detected in organic vegetables. Thus organic food does not necessary equates to more safer and hygienic food. So next time if you chance to buy organic food in particular vegetables, make sure you clean and rinse it thoroughly!.