Dirty Dirt

My last entry talked about the harmful effects of pesticides on our produce, however I don't think I delved quite deep enough. Let's take a quick look into a little bit of the information I didn't touch on.

Pesticides are used to kill the buggies. Now, being that I taught a bunch of fourth graders how horrible it is to disrupt the ecosystem this year in science class, we all should know as adults how horrible that is. Of course, if I were a farmer, I am sure I would feel differently. I would want to protect my crops and my livelihood from those little buggers. However, those little guys serve a purpose. 

Below the surface, in the soil are some good bacteria and awesome microorganisms. These little fellas help keep the fruits and veggies full of nutrients and vitamins. Seems pretty awesome. Nature will produce food that will nourish us if the soil is properly nourished and healthy. Makes perfect sense. However, when we start spraying toxins and chemicals all over the produce, not only does that mean we ingest the gunk and funk, it also means that the little friends down there in the dirt that were helpful in creating healthy food for us, are dead. If they are dead, they cannot help to make the produce optimal...what does this mean? We eat "healthy" produce not realizing that the nutritional value of it is near zero. We are eating a piece of fruit or a veggie that has no nutritional value whatsoever! We are actually starving ourselves of vitamins, minerals and nourishment! WOAH! I was just as surprised as you! Not only are the pesticides killing the bad stuff, they're killing the good stuff too.

www.toxicsaction.org  outlines pretty clearly the damages that occur to not only the soil, and the food, but potentially to us. Take a few minutes to check out this site. 

The bits of information that I neglected to put into the first blog entry was the fact that by eating those non-organic things and thinking we are healthy is sadly not the truth. We are essentially starving our bodies of key nutrients, minerals and nourishment. I chose to take action. I now get all of the nourishment that my body desires and needs to function at it's proper level. Take control of your bodies and your knowledge on the topic. Knowledge truly is power. 

Clean Vs. Dirty....The More You Know

Now this may sound crazy to some, but if there has to be a sign posted like the one above......or workers that are spraying need to wear a whole suit with protective gear (as seen below)....why would we willingly put those fruits and vegetables in our bodies? Pesticide ridden produce are a majority of the produce you find in each and every grocery store around the country. 

I have learned a lot from the EWG (Environmental Working Group) website and also Jen's (Jen is a friend and a health and wellness coach) blog. Jen outlines the findings of the EWG study in her blog. CLICK HERE to read her response and analysis of the report. CLICK HERE for the abbreviated summary of the report straight from EWG.

My extremely brief version of the situation is that the EWG says 2/3 of the produce in our stores have extremely high levels of toxins on them....yuck! They are usually covered in not just one type of pesticide, but multiple. When learning about the toxins and the junk I was putting in my body, I had to educate myself on which foods I needed to buy organic and which ones I could get away with buying non-organic. It boils down to understanding and buying according to the "Clean Fifteen" vs. the "Dirty Dozen". You want to always buy the produce on the dirty dozen list organically. The clean fifteen contain low amounts of yucky stuff and are ok to buy non-organically. Here is a quick snapshot from the EWG website:

The EWG website, as I stated before has a ton of information on produce and how to keep your family healthy when buying fruits and veggies. I highly recommend browsing their website to get all of the current research.

Think you can't afford to buy organic? I thought so too! Jen also wrote about this topic, so CLICK HERE to check that out. 

What I've found is that if I stick to the clean 15 and dirty dozen lists, buying organic isn't that expensive. Being on an extremely tight budget, the thought of buying organic scared me a lot. However, once I broke it down, it wasn't too bad. One thing that I eat a lot of are bell peppers. I started out making that one change. I started buying my peppers organic. After that, I made sure to get my potatoes, and also my cucumbers because those were the two things I ate a good amount of as well. I tried organic strawberries and blueberries and fell in love! They just seem to taste better without the waxy, yucky gunk on them! They tasted like the ones we used to pick right from the bush as kids! Imagine that!

Here is a family that was part of a recent experiment in Sweden. They were like most families, and ate mostly, if not completely, non-organic foods. Watch the short video below to see how it affected them (and how it is affecting all of us!) This video was posed by CoopSverige on YouTube and was picked up by a lot of different media outlets. It popped up on my Facebook feed a few weeks ago. For more on this study CLICK HERE.

With how busy everyone's lives are these days, grabbing whatever is closest to you in the store seems like the best idea at the time. Buying fruits and veggies seems like the healthy choice, however, when they are soaked in toxins and pesticides, the health benefits of those foods are lost. With knowledge comes change. I have started seeing more a push for organic produce in grocery stores, and hopefully that will become more of a norm. You can always check out your local Farmers Market for great organic produce as well! With our produce providing low levels of health benefits, we need to rid ourselves of the gunk and keep our bodies healthy.