To Eat Organic or Not to Eat Organic

There should be no question. Obviously, in general, organic is better. Both because it produces a food that is better for our bodies because our bodies don’t have to fight off the ill effects of the pesticides etc (let’s face it, we are a bit of a pest on the planet ourselves, what makes you think humans are immune to the killing substances), and better for the earth, because she doesn’t have to work so hard to stay in balance or to recover from the damage done through land stripping and/or toxifying types of farming (damn, was that ever one long sentence!). So yes, when you can, shoot for organic. And there are some foods that it is more important for than others. Doing a bit of research in this area can help you to decide where to spend your organic dollar.

Here are a couple of examples:

Strawberries. You want ‘em organic. Here is the theory behind it. These little fellas are like sponges. So even if you wash them and wash them and keep washing them, the pesticide is inside, way inside. It got in a long time ago and you can’t get it out. So if they are not organic, well, just leave them alone!

Avocados on the other hand grow from such a robust and naturally healthy plant that by and large growers do not need to spray their crops to keep them healthy, happy and safe. So usually even the not organic avocados are fine. By the way, just a happy little plug for these power packed friends, when I was in chemo I had a friend of the family (who is a nurse) make me promise that I would eat one avocado a day. Yes they are full of fat, but good fat, and they are also full of so many nutrients and other good stuff that, well, they were just what the nurse ordered. Besides for me, with the possibility of loosing ground on the weight front during chemo, I wanted to be consuming lots of high quality calories. Bring them on!

Here is another “must go organic” choice. Wine. Why? Because when your average vineyard is growing their grapes they spray the crop (with, by the way, are very high in artificial estrogen pesticide, can you say Breast Cancer?) when the grapes are just little and wee, and then when they grow it gets really hard to get rid of the pesticide just by an easy little rinse, because it is all in the nooks and crannies. Not that they wash the grapes before they throw them in a vat, squish them around and let them ferment, oh no, they get to soak in their own juices along with all the nasty, dangerous, toxic sludge. How pleasant. How tasty. And guess what? Apparently (I say apparently because while I have heard it said repeatedly I haven’t done the research myself and so don’t feel that I ought to quote it like an absolute fact – not that that has stopped me on other occasions or with other topics, but just for today…) just north of San Francisco, in Sonoma and Napa county, you know, wine grape growing country, is the highest per capita instance of breast cancer diagnosis. Ouch. Now I don’t know if these things are related, but I wouldn’t take the chance of messing with it (like I did say with birth control pills, don’t get me started with the new one that can keep you from bleeding for YEARS, how is that suppose to be a good and honourable solution, where is the respect for our bodies in that – but more on that in a few days). Besides it has been said that wine and booze in general is something to be avoided, if like me, you have had breast cancer (not sure how or if it has an impact on other cancers). So if you must wine, stick with organic.