Bobby Portenoy’s Healthy Living Blog

In today’s market it is becoming more and more difficult to pick organic. As saving money becomes a bigger concern, the decision to be organic is a cost issue rather than a health issue. To help with the choice you should know which foods you should be prepared to spend the money on because of your health, and which you can make a monetary judgment on.

When you are deciding on which fruits and vegetables the nastiest for pesticides are peaches and strawberries. Regardless of how much you rinse them, they are saturated with poisons, so if you can’t afford to get the organic strawberries and peaches, select something else.

Choose organic pears, grapes, raspberries, apples, nectarines and cherries; studies have shown that after rinsing, they still have really high levels of pesticide. If you are using lemon, lime, or orange zest, you want organic, as the skin holds the poisons in them.

When you are looking at pineapple, papaya, kiwi, and mango you can make it a monetary decision. Although there are traces of pesticides after rinsing, and I fully recommend organic, the scientists state they are well within healthy limits.

Always opt for organic bell peppers, spinach, potatoes, celery, cucumber, corn, green beans and carrots. There are many recent studies that show that they have extremely high levels of pesticides (especially chlorothalonil, methamidophos, benomyl and acephate), which have been known to cause brain damage, nervous system damage, and birth defects. Asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet peas, and avocados show lower pesticide levels so you make the decision, although again I recommend organic, and if you shop around you will find reasonable prices for the above organic vegetables.

In today’s world of genetic modification and pesticides there are some necessary staples you should always have organic. Along with corn, rice is one of the most modified grains in the world. So always want eat organic rice. It is also a good idea to only use organic oats as their consistency allows them to retain pesticides.

This is also the case with nuts, as they have a very high fat content which retains pesticides, no matter how hard you try to get it out. So you should try to always purchase organic nuts and spreads. As the spreads can be very costly, it may be easier to drop them from your diet. A different option is to buy the organic nuts and make your own spreads. There are a lot of recipes to be found on how to do it.

Meat is always a difficult decision, as organic meat can be pricey. But when you think about the chemicals that are being used in order to make it more profitable for the processors, you should always spend the money to go organic. There are many studies on the effects of the hormones and antibiotics that are being used on meat.

Seafood, is a very hard food to consider when it comes to organic. There are no real regulations on organic seafood, so the best choice you can make is to stay away from fish that is known to contain high levels of mercury and PCB’s. Tuna, swordfish, shellfish and bluefish have high levels of both, otherwise you must do research on the latest studies.

Any company can put organic on the label, as long as they have used some organic ingredients. Be very cautious of any processed and packaged food as what they claim and what they actually are is not always the same thing. Your best option is to stay away from them, but if you decide to buy them, do your research. Know what is actually in them, and find out how ethical the company is.

Choosing organic does not mean you have to go broke. Do your due diligence and look around for the best prices. With the Internet it becomes very easy to locate the best prices on organic goods and not break your budget.

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