Reasons to Buy Organic
© By Lena Sanchez

There is a lot of controversy being thrown around these days as to whether organically grown foods are better than traditional. I thought I would give you some good reasons why it is better and how it benefits your health. The benefits are far-reaching and very important to assure a healthy body and clean and healthy environment along with leaving our next generation a less polluted world.

Those reasons are:

PROTECT FUTURE GENERATIONS HEALTH: The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. Check out several reports from the horses’ mouth at http://www.envirodocs.com/Urgent Pesticides.htm

PROTECT WATER QUALITY: Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet. Despite water’s importance, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that pesticides and herbicides contaminate the ground water in at least 38 states. Considering that only 54% of the states have reported in it could be much more.

TASTE, NUTRITION AND QUALITY: Legendary restaurant chefs across the country, from Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California to Nora Pouillon of Restaurant Nora in Washington D.C. will tell you; Organic food tastes better! Why? Well-balanced soils grow strong, healthy plants, which in turn make vegetables and fruits taste great.

SUPPORT A TRUE ECONOMY: Organically grown foods may seem more expensive, but mere retail prices are deceptive. Current food prices do not reflect the costs of federal subsidies to conventional agriculture, the cost of cleaning up contaminated drinking water, the cost of loss of wildlife-habitat and topsoil, or the cost of disposal and cleanup of hazardous waste generated by the manufacturing of pesticides. Consumers can pay now or pay later.

PRESERVE BIODIVERSITY: The loss of a large variety of species is one of our most pressing environmental concerns. Many organic growers have been collecting and using heirloom seed varieties for decades. Compare that to conventional farms, which continue to grow hybridized vegetables and fruits bred for uniformity, ease of shipping and cosmetic appearance versus great taste.

REDUCE POTENTIAL HEALTH RISKS: Many EPA-approved pesticides were registered long before extensive research linked these chemicals to cancer and other diseases. Now, the EPA considers 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides as potentially cancer-causing.

MASS PRODUCED VEGGIES lost their nutrients: From USDA food composition tables in 1936 were that the land was nutrient deficient! Since 1975 to today a dozen vegetables have been checked by Alex Jack, macrobiotic nutritionist, for a book he was editing.

Results were as follows:

calcium down 27% on average iron down 37% vitamin A down 21% vitamin C down 30% The figures for broccoli specifically were calcium down 53.4%, iron 20%, vitamin A 38.3%, vitamin C 17.5%

A study in the British Food Journal three years ago found nutrient values had declined by as much a 22% in Britain from the 1930s to the 1980s.

These figures are the very reason Organic farmers usually add natural nutrients to the land by rotating crops that feed the ground and add the nutrients to keep them higher in their vegetables. I am not saying that all the nutrients are back to the 1900 standards sufficiently but sure as heck a lot better than the traditional farmers who mass produce for looks and amount rather than quality. Traditional farming add chemical compound fertilizer that puts exactly three nutrients in the plants.

Now when I was in school I was taught that our body requires a consistent need of 94 nutrients. I think 3 falls way short somehow, don't you?

That along with not adding pesticides and chemicals, which adds to the cost we pay for organic but makes it far more worth while than the average grocery story fare. Getting sick and paying horrific medical bills or maybe dying from nutrient deficient foods that are creating free radicals throughout the body causing life threatening illness or disease, is very expensive making buying organic far less expensive in the long run! Pay now or pay later!

These reasons alone should make buying organic foods the smart thing to do for yourself and your family if not for the rest of the world!

*** Meet Lena Sanchez, author, retired Medical office nurse/administrator/consultant http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com/lenas.htm Lena also does consulting in online business along with alternative health matters helping to build your success in business as well as healthy minds and bodies http://www.envirodocs.com Editor of “Natural Environmental Health Facts & Your Home Business Coach” ezine subscribe at http://www.envirodocs.com/newsletter.htm