When To Buy Organic.

As many of you will probably be aware, my general mantra when it comes to the food that I eat, and tell my clients to eat, is that natural is best. Whole, un modified, good quality food that has no ingredients list is the best way to eat healthily in the long term as far as I am concerned. That is what we are designed to eat and our bodies respond best to it.

As much as I can, I try and eat an organic diet as well, and I believe that the extra cost is justified by the quality, both in taste and nutrition. I will often try and get clients to try eating more organic food and the main issue is usually the price increase on the weekly shop, so this article is to help you to make wise choices with your food that will aid both your health and your bank balance.

Fruit and Veg: These are probably the most common and most affordable foods for people wanting to try eating organically. The issue with many non-organic fruit and veg is the pesticides and fertilisers used to increase growth rates and efficiency in high intensity farming operations. These agro-chemicals then end up within the actual food and you then consume it. To that end there are 2 guidelines that I will give you now. 1) The priority if you can only buy a few organic products should be the fruit and veg with highest water contents, like melons, oranges, celery and potato. The water held in the flesh of these and other watery foods is obviously straight from the soil in which it grew and is therefore going to contain chemicals in non-organic foods. 2) You should take extra care to peel or thoroughly wash any non-organic fruit or veg where you eat the outer layer or skin that will have been in contact with chemicals from crop sprayers or similar treatments.

Meat and Poultry: For the purposes of this I am not going to go on about animal welfare, just the health and nutrition side of life. Many modern intensively farmed animals are routinely fed growth hormones, anti-biotics and medicines to pre-empt disease and to make them grow faster and fatter to aid productivity. When an animal (including us) ingests these there is often a tendency for any residue from the treatments to be stored in the fat tissues under the skin, meaning that in low grade meat the fat is often full of hormones and anti-biotics. To that end, if you are buying fatty cuts of meat like steaks or lamb chops you should try and buy free range organic if at all possible, and if not then just free range.

Fish: You will often see organic salmon in the supermarket. The simple fact is that this is intensively farmed fish from a loch somewhere in Scotland and they are fed organic pellets. Wild fish is truly organic and is higher in health promoting omega 3 fatty acids as well as tasting better (in my opinion!)

Dairy: For the same reasons as meat and poultry, dairy is usually a lot better for you if it is organic as it will be a more natural product and will have better quality fats in it with a better ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids. If not organic then try and get an outdoor reared, grass fed product.

That was a brief summary with some guidelines to help you make informed choices when you are shopping. I am not trying to scare monger, and any fruit and veg is better than none, and the BEST fruit and veg is local, seasonal, organic and probably available at a market near you at a cheaper price than the supermarket and not covered in plastic!

Stay Strong