Organic foods are widely available today. Most people that switch to organic only foods report a boost in their energy levels. They also report that they are in better health. They get fewer allergies, cold, and when they do catch an illness they recover a lot quicker. Some families do not have the option to switch to organic only diets because of the costs of the products. A lot of people say this can actually afford it though. If they are eating a lot of processed foods they can cut these items out of their grocery budget and put towards organic only items. Processed Food are not only expensive they are very bad for your boy because of the chemicals used to process them. Organic foods are all natural. What is the difference between organic farming and conventional farmers?

Organic farmers only use natural fertilizers such as manure to feed the plants. Conventional farmers use chemical fertilizers to feed the plants and those fertilizers are passed on to the food. Organic farmers use beneficial insects and birds and traps to reduce pests and the diseases they cause. Conventional farmers use insecticides to reduce pests and the diseases they cause. To manage weeds, organic farmers, till and hand weed as well as rotate crops. Conventional farmer’s chemicals to manage weeds. Organic Farmers use all natural ingredients to feed the animals while conventional farmers give growth hormones and antibiotics to increase the quality of their meat. Always read labels on food to make sure that they are 100 percent organic and not just made of organic ingredients.

A lot of people are making the switch to organic cleaning products as well. They have major health and environmental advantages. When using regular products you are exposed to all kinds of chemicals that are bad for our environment as well as our health. Organic cleaning products do not have chemicals and they are safe for everyone to use while protecting our environment as well. Many major retailers are stating to carry these protects. Look at Clorox and the new products that they are making. They are just about the same price as regular cleaning products and they are all organic and so much better for our nation.

One area that is difficult to find is organic baby products. Organic baby products are getting easier to find. At many high end retailers you can find organic baby clothing, crib bedding and bath products. They are high end items that are made from organic materials.

Organic clothing is getting easier to find as well. Wal-Mart is starting to carry organic clothing. Cotton farming is very hard on our environment. Statistics state that every t-shirt made with regular cotton require ¼ cup of chemicals. With organic cotton no harsh toxins or synthetic fertilizers are used .Natural fertilizers are used to produce organic cotton. A wide variety of organic cotton clothing is now available, t-shirts, socks, pants, underwear, skirts, blouses, sheets, pillowcases and towels. A lot of high end retailers are also making organic clothing.

Organic living is not only being concerned about our environment but changing your lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle!!!

In addition to the mental and emotional benefits of growing and eating organic food, there are also the physical benefits. These physical benefits can be boiled down to nutrients present in organic foods that are not in commercial foods and toxins not in organic foods that are present in commercial foods. A recent article in the Journal of Applied Nutrition gave credence to the notion that organic foods have higher nutrient levels that non-organic food. In this study the mineral content of organic apples, pear, potatoes, wheat, and sweet corn were compared to commercial varieties.

Overall the organic foods showed much higher levels of nutrient minerals and much lower levels of heavy metals Other studies have looked at vitamin levels of food plants treated with certain pesticides. They showed that application of some pesticides would significantly lower the vitamin levels in the plants they were applied to. This is different than the notion that plants raised with chemicals are low in nutrients because the soil is depleted. This shows that chemicals actually reduce the amount of nutrients in plants after application. The nutrients most often affected are vitamin C, beta carotene, and the B vitamins. These nutrients are vitally necessary for the body to withstand the onslaught of chemical toxins. Vitamin C has been well documented by two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling to prevent and treat cancers. Beta carotene has been shown to be a stimulant of the immune system, and is sometimes able to prevent lung cancer.

When they studied organic food for mineral levels, the researchers also looked for the amount of the heavy metals aluminum, cadmium, lead and mercury. Aluminum has been implicated for years in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s content in organic food averaged 40% less that in commercial foods. Lead toxicity, which has been in the new a lot lately, can adversely affect our children’s’ IQ. It averaged 29% lower in organic foods. Mercury, which can cause neurologic damage, averaged 25% lower in organic foods. Besides the lower levels of heavy metals, there are the chemical residues themselves. The big question is whether or not the accumulation of pesticide residues in non-organic foods is a real health concern or not. Studies have never been able to conclusively show a direct correlation between residues in food and a decline of human health, but there are numerous problems in doing any such study.

The first is that you would need a population of people who are free of chemical residues to compare to, and no one has been able to find such a group. According to an ongoing EPA study of fat samples taken from surgeries and autopsies across the country, we are all loaded with chemical residues. Similar studies done on other countries all show the same results. The clearest studies that we have about pesticide residues and disease are those looking at breast cancer. In the last few years there have been a series of studies, each building upon the other, looking at the level of DDT, DDE, and PCB in women, They have very clearly shown that chemical residues in the serum and fat cells of women greatly increase the risk of breast cancer.

Since breast cancer is a major killer of women in this country it is reasonable to say that avoidance of pesticide residues in food (the only known route of exposure to DDT in this country, since we no longer use it to spray for mosquitoes) could save numerous lives and reduce our health care cost dramatically. After 50 years of “Better Living Through Chemistry” scientists have finally shown that breast cancer is associated with pesticide residue, They have yet to prove that it causes numerous other maladies. I am not waiting for them to prove it before I change my eating habits.

As a clinician who sees numerous environmentally poisoned people with health problems, I am convinced of an association between chemicals and disease. The biggest source of exposure for many people is their workplace, then their homes, followed by air, food and water. Of these the easiest to control are our home environment and our diet.

Fruits and veggies grown organically show significantly higher levels of
cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods, according to a
new study of corn, strawberries and marionberries. The research suggests
that pesticides and herbicides actually thwart the production of phenolics <
chemicals that act as a plant’s natural defense and also happen to be good
for our health. Fertilizers, however, seem to boost the levels of
anti-cancer compounds.

The findings appear in the Feb. 26 print edition of the Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American
Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The article was
initially published Jan. 25 on the journal’s Web site.

Flavonoids are phenolic compounds that have potent antioxidant activity.
Many are produced in plants in response to environmental stressors, such as
insects or competing plants.

“If an aphid is nibbling on a leaf, the plant produces phenolics to defend
itself,” says Alyson Mitchell, Ph.D., a food scientist at the University of
California, Davis, and lead author of the paper. “Bitter or harsh phenolics
guard the plant against these pests.”

The need for these natural safeguards decreases with the use of herbicides
and pesticides in conventional agriculture. This decrease is reflected in
the total amount of antioxidants the plants produce. “This helps explain why
the level of antioxidants is so much higher in organically grown food,”
Mitchell says. “By synthetically protecting the produce from these pests, we
decrease their need to produce antioxidants. It suggests that maybe we are
doing something to our food inadvertently.”

Mitchell measured antioxidants found in corn, strawberries and a type of
blackberry called a marionberry. “We started with these three due to plant
availability,” Mitchell explains, “but we intend to widen our search to
include tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and a variety of other vegetables. We
expect these results to be transferable to most produce.”

The investigation compared the total antioxidants found in foods grown
organically (using no herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers) to foods grown
sustainably (in this study fertilizers but no herbicides or pesticides were
used) and conventionally (using synthetic chemicals to protect the plants
and increase yield).

The results showed a significant increase in antioxidants in organic and
sustainably grown foods versus conventionally grown foods. The levels of
antioxidants in sustainably grown corn were 58.5 percent higher than
conventionally grown corn. Organically and sustainably grown marionberries
had approximately 50 percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown
berries. Sustainably and organically grown strawberries showed about 19
percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown strawberries.

Antioxidant levels were highest overall in sustainably grown produce, which
indicates that a combination of organic and conventional practices yields
the highest levels of antioxidants. “This may reflect the balance between
adequate nutrition in the form of fertilizers and external pest pressures
because of the lack of pesticides and herbicides,” Mitchell explains.

“Originally, the question was just really intriguing to me,” says Mitchell,
whose research grew naturally from a personal interest in organic foods. “I
found that the higher level of antioxidants is enough to have a significant
impact on health and nutrition, and it’s definitely changed the way I think
about my food.”