WHY CHOOSING USDA ORGANIC FOOD MATTERS
Why Choosing USDA Organic Food Matters
Understanding the importance of choosing organic food options can seem over whelming but I’m here to break it down for you. It simply starts with understanding how the veggies, fruits, and meat ( animals ) are grown and raise.
ORGANIC VS NON ORGANIC PRODUCE
The term “organic” refers to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. While the regulations vary from country to country, in the U.S., organic crops must be grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (GMOs), petroleum-based fertilizers, and sewage sludge-based fertilizers.
Organic livestock raised for meat, eggs, and dairy products must have access to the outdoors and be given organic feed. They may not be given antibiotics, growth hormones, or any animal by-products.
The Benefits Of Organic Food:
How your food is grown or raised can have a major impact on your mental health, emotional health, and the environment. Organic foods often have more beneficial nutrients like antioxidants. People with allergies to foods, chemicals, or preservatives often find their symptoms lessen or go away when they eat only organic foods.
Organic produce contains fewer pesticides: Chemicals such as fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides are widely used in non-organic agriculture and residues remain on and in the food we eat.
Organic food is often fresher: It doesn’t contain preservatives that make it last longer then it naturally should.
Organic farming is better for the environment: Organic farming practices reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy. Farming without pesticides is also better for nearby birds and animals as well as people who live close to farms.
Organically raised animals are NOT given antibiotics, growth hormones, or fed animal byproducts: Feeding livestock animal byproducts increases the risk of mad cow disease (BSE) and the use of antibiotics can create antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Organically-raised animals are given more space to move around and access to the outdoors, which help to keep them healthy and avoid passing the antibiotics on to the person eating the meat.
Organic meat and milk are richer in certain nutrients: Results of a 2016 European study show that levels of certain nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids, were up to 50 percent higher in organic meat and milk than in conventionally raised versions.
Organic food is GMO-free: Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or genetically engineered (GE) foods are plants whose DNA has been altered in ways that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding, most commonly in order to be resistant to pesticides or produce an insecticide.
One of the primary benefits of eating organic is lower levels of pesticides. However, despite popular belief, organic farms do use pesticides. The difference is that they only use naturally-derived pesticides, rather than the synthetic pesticides used on non-organic commercial farms. Natural pesticides are believed to be less toxic and your exposure to harmful pesticides will be lower when eating organic foods.
When we expose our bodies to multiple type of synthetic pesticide chemicals it can cause short term and long term health risks. Our bodies and especially our children’s growing bodies were not created to with stand the toxic dangers from these chemicals. These toxic chemicals are a big factor in why we are seeing an increase of chronic disease younger and younger each year. Our kids are being exposed shortly after birth through breast milk then right into toxic table foods.
It’s time we took a stand against food companies that allow these toxic chemicals to be apart of the foods they are producing and choose to only purchase organic options of foods to help save our generation and the next! If we all do our part eventually we will create an amazing ripple effect for cleaner foods being produced!
Knowledge is power! Now you know, so you have to decide the best option for you and your family.
Coach Help
I am a Certified Nutritional Health Coach and would love to help you get started on your clean eating journey with an awesome accountability group or even “one on one” specific health coaching to meet your current needs.
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