Top Foods to Buy Organic

Many of us can't afford to buy all organic foods, but if you can start with a few you'll make a huge impact on the quantity of pesticides, antibiotics and hormones consumed.

"According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80% by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating only the cleanest. (www.thedailygreen.com)"

1. All meat, fish and poultry
While these foods won't typically contain much in the way of pesticides, when commercially farmed they're loaded with other nasty substances.
These are the most important foods to buy organic, the chemicals and bacterias are carcinogenic and even deadly. Did you know if you put a corn-fed cow on it's natural diet of grass, the cow's digestive system would bring it's e-coli levels back to safe levels in only ONE WEEK!

Also see: Josh's post about beef fillers.
Also see: the rest of the developed world's ban on rbgh.


2. Carrots
Not only do the organic carrots taste AMAZING, they also contain little to no pesticides!! The European Union is actually working to ban the chemical pesticide commonly used for carrots. Wake up USA! We've got some catching up to do.

Additionally, Aleisha says carrots are her pick for an always buy organic veggie, especially for the taste:)

3. Thin skinned fruits (and/or fruits you eat the skins of): peaches, nectarines, grapes, apples and strawberries to name a few
Not only do these fruits have super permeable skins, we commonly eat those skins and they're just soaked with pesticides that no amount of running under cold water in a colander will fix.

Buy these organic, or buy thicker skinned fruits like melons, oranges, pineapple, kiwis or mango.

4. Veggies with no protective anything: leafy greens, kale, spinach, peppers and celery
Pesticides are sprayed directly onto the edible parts of these plants... and remember that experiment we did when we were kids with the glass of dyed water and a celery stalk, and the stalk turned blue? Yeah, well that happens with these plants and chemicals. Gross.

5. Milk and Eggs
For me this is predominantly an animal and worker/farmer treatment issue. Conditions in factory dairy and poultry farms are inexcusable. Henceforth, buy these from local producers with humane practices.

So it costs a dollar more? Pretty sure you can skip a coffee and find it was worth your while.
As with all the foods on this list, the organic versions just taste better.


http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/10-foods-you-should-buy-organic.htm
http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/slowfoodorganiclocal/a/organicproduce_2.htm