Organic & Natural Foods

I am switching over very slowly (mostly because of the grocery bill hit you were talking about!) I am a big fruits and veggies person, and the thing I run into in Alaska is that our produce isn't the greatest to begin with (coming from California, I'm used to being able to get fresh, good produce almost year round), and oftentimes the organic stuff doesn't look good at all. I struggle between getting the non-organic, or not getting anything at all (because the organic stuff doesn't look like it will last long). But I am trying, because I do worry about how all the pesticides and chemicals can affect hormones, and since my condition is hormone driven, I want to do whatever I can to help with that.

Now that I'm eating meat again, I am a big fan of organic/humanely raised options too, just because I feel that takes some of the "ick" factor with meat away for.

When we switched, it was cold turkey. We switched everything...meat, veggies, fruit, cereal, etc. Anything that could be found organic, we used. Our grocery bill went up some but not as much as I had expected.

My health was 100% better! I have never felt that great before!

And now that we are here where I have access to very little organic, I feel like poop again. It sucks! As much as I love it here, I am counting down until we are Stateside again where I will have ample organic foods available.

We also switched cold turkey. We already ate all organic beef and milk. Our grocery bill went up a little, but because organic meant cutting out most packaged and convienence foods it hasn't been that bad. Over the two years since we made the switch, I have gone back to buying a few non-organic items. I buy non-organic cereal because I couldn't find an organic one that we liked that wasn't loaded with sugar and the same with crackers. For both of those items we eat the healthiest non-organic varieties in the grocery store. I also stopped buying organic bread and began making my own with non-bleached, non-organic flour. Oh, and we eat regular cheese in addition to homemade. There is a law against giving hormones to dairy cows in Canada and my husband eats amazing amount of cheese.

We also stopped using all non-stick cookware

I have a very large vegetable garden and try to freeze or can as much as possible to eat throughout the year.

I would say switch to organic as much as you can, see how much it is costing you and go from there. It's all about priorities. We don't go on vacations, have a big TV (or cable), buy lots of clothes etc but I just won't skimp on food.

As for health, well I got pregnant after trying for 2 years which might have been due to our new diet. My kids are almost never sick. My daughter is almost five and went to the doctor for the third time in her life this winter. In fact we are all very rarely sick. I think though, that the health benefits willbe long-term for the whole family.

I want to go organic but am having a hard time doing so. Frankly, the closest stores that sell organic at a reasonable price is 45 minutes away. We rarely go out of town so that makes it almost impossible.

I just read an article in the most recent All You magazine (available at Walmart for less than $2) and it said you should switch slowly. It also recommends only buying produce from the dirty dozen list, which includes things like apples, peaches, potatoes, and so on. Things such as bananas, watermelong, avacados, and other items with thick peels are too worrisome.

Elizabeth, why does it say that thinks not on the dirty dozen list are too worrisome? That doesn't make any sense to me.

Usually it is recommended that if you are not going to completely switch then do stick with organic when it comes to things on the dirty dozen list which are fruits & veggies that you could eat the whole thing of...apples, strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes, etc. Things that have thick skinned you do not have to worry about as much because the skin absorbs most of the pesticides & you don't eat those. I would think you wouldn't worry so much about those kinds versus them being more worrisome.