Be Better Guys

A Happy Organic cow!

These days you go to the supermarket to get your stuff for the week and you’re bombarded with “Organic!”  or “All natural!” or “Free range!” or “Slow food!” or my favorite:  “Free!” It gets damn confusing and frankly a lot of it’s misleading as all get-out. Except for one: organic.

Organic foods are no lie. And organic foods are exploding at markets and farm stands and restaurants across the country and for good reason: organic foods have multiple benefits you need to be aware of.  Now they’re pricier but after you read this breakdown I think you’ll be sold that it’s more than cost – it’s better for you. Be Better Guys will break down the organic empire into simple terms that you can act on tomorrow.  But first – what is organic?

What Organic Means: Organic foods mean that there are no hormones or chemicals injected into foods to get them to look like foods you’d actually like to buy when you’re pushing your cart aimlessly up and down the aisles trying to follow an attractive mom you saw back at the apples.  Organic means crops are genetically modified to have a deeper color.  It means antibiotics weren’t used to make your chicken breasts plumper.  And they don’t do nasty things like feed dead animals to live ones.

Quick aside – the organic movement has uncovered something really important to all you eaters who think you’re living a healthy lifestyle:  factory farmers do not care about your health.  They care about your wallet.  They want to produce something that distributors will buy and pass on to grocers that you will buy and take home.  And eat.  Even if it’s been sprayed with pesticides that would kill a bison.

Read this again – many large production “farmers” do not care about you.  The ol’ “aw shucks Pa…we need to bail some more hay for Bessie to give more milk!” ain’t the way it really is. And you have to protect your body for the long term.

That’s why organic’s so important. It doesn’t make you a wuss.  It means you want to not get overridden with cancer at 55 years old because of weird chemicals you had no idea you were repeatedly ingesting when you were in your 20s.

The Three Main Benefits of Organic:

• Putting healthier food in your body for the long term and reducing your chances of risking cancers and diabetes by cutting back on antibiotics and harmful chemicals used in factory farming.
• Giving your body more nutrients. Studies have shown that fruit treated with pesticides can retard the development of healthy antioxidants that you’re body needs to fight off disease.
• A better environment. It doesn’t take a Yale grad to know that if animals and fruits and vegetables are treated with chemicals to encourage them to grow bigger/riper/meatier that those chemicals wash into the soil and leach into rivers. And guess what?  Back into you through your water intake.

What Organic Means…Part II: There are several definitions under the “organic” umbrella.  Here’s the breakdown that you need to know:

• Organic: If the USDA says it’s organic then at least 95% of the ingredients included in the food were produced organically.  Meaning they’re not genetically modified or fed antibiotics or growth hormones (if it’s meat) or sprayed with pesticides (fruits and veggies).
• Natural: Natural foods don’t mean organic foods.  Natural foods in fact have no actual standards. That means you can say “natural” and there’s no benchmark to which to hold that moniker up. Usually it means preservatives weren’t used in the foods but remember – there’s no real definition of “natural” so be wary.
• Organic Ingredients: If the USDA says “made with organic ingredients” then the food is at least 70% organic. Not as good as certified organic but way more credible than “natural.” That is if you trust our federal government’s standards!
• Local Farming: Just because something’s local doesn’t mean the “local” farmer doesn’t use chemicals.  We’d hope he or she didn’t but a local certification doesn’t guarantee that by any means. Rather look for labels like “local organic” and then you know you’re getting what you want – the support of a local farmer and a farmer who would rather ensure he not kill you with his farming methods!

The Wrap Up: Organic foods cost more to produce. They cost more for you to buy. Is it worth it? Hell yeah it is.  Unless you’re interested in contracting some bozo diseases from genetically-modified food and checking out early. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen, a list of foods you absolutely need to buy as organics.