Just because something says "organic" on the label, does not mean it is organic.
Let me say it a different way...
In order for a product to be labelled "organic", it has to have certification backing it up. There is a standard that must be met in order to sell organic. If you are spending the extra money to buy organic goods, make sure they have one or both of these labels. If it does not have these labels, then you could be dishing out more cash for something that's no different than the product's non-organic counterpart! Companies are supposed to have certification before they label anything organic, but some supposedly-organic products slip under the radar and make it to the store shelves without being questioned.
On the other hand, while I trust these labels to be accurate, I am not going to leave it to some board somewhere to decide what is healthy for me or not. Just because something says organic on it, doesn't mean it's good for you. It only means the ingredients or most of the ingredients are organic and have met the high standard of no pesticides or preservatives. And it's not about being a part of a club or trend of eating only organic foods or having all organic products in your house. In fact, you could probably fill your pantry with organic goods and not be much better off health-wise. It is all about nutrition. Educate yourself. Learn how to read food labels. That is so important - read the labels and find out what all those strange words actually mean! Buy mostly fresh and whole foods. Why would I buy organic instant oatmeal when I can make rolled oats from scratch (for a fraction of the cost), cut the sugar and get loads more fibre in at the same time?
Don't make a habit of sacrificing nutrition just to save time.
What I'm trying to say is, when nutrition is your goal, you will learn to be conscious of all your food choices, organic and non-organic. And when you decide something is worth splurging on (chocolate bar, candy, chips), pick the one that has the best quality ingredients (organic) in it and the least amount of ingredients. Or just make it yourself, from scratch. Make sense?
2 comments:
I totally agree. For example, white organic flour still has the nutrients and the fibre stripped right out of it! We actually don't worry so much about organic at our house, but I'm a HUGE believer in whole grains and I try to make sure we get lots of fruits, veggies and lean meats into our diet. I also think when you're going to have a treat homemade is always better than the highly processed store bought ones.
I think the biggest message I have learned here, and from other random reading is that the less processed and "human hands/machines" a food has touched the best. I didn't realize just how over processed simple things were like: white flour, sugar, cereals, crackers, etc. were until investing some time into the research (ok all I did was google it a few times... ahha) Thanks for your guidance here.
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