Organic food isn’t just found at the farmer’s market anymore. Nor is it only limited to the produce section of the 
grocery store. “Organic” labels are popping up everywhere from cookie packages to Kraft Dinner.
So if given the choice between regular and organic you go the latter, right? Isn’t organic healthier?
To answer this question, we first have to understand exactly what organic food is. Organic.org explains that “organic produce and other ingredients are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. Animals that produce meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products do not take antibiotics or growth hormones.”
So what does that have to do with Kraft Dinner? Nothing, really. An organic stamp does not make a product healthier. Organic junk food is still junk food. Organic labels do not magically lower the calorie count or increase the nutrients of food. It is simply an example of companies latching on to a popular marketing strategy, one that will give them an excuse to sell their products at an inflated price.
There are times when buying organic is worth the extra cost. The Environmental Working Group regularly puts together a list of the “dirtiest” fruit and vegetables. Peaches have topped all the lists with the highest pesticide load of all the produce they tested. Rounding out the top five are apples, sweet bell pepper, celery and nectarines.
The best produce in terms of pesticides are onions and avocados, along with corn, pineapple and mango. It may seem like a long and varied list, with not much commonality between the good and bad foods. But the most susceptible produce seems to be fruit with thin skins, while the better foods are those with a tougher exterior. Of course, peeling and thoroughly washing your produce will also help.
Before you even start looking at the organic packages in the cracker aisle, you should be scoping out the selection of organic meat and dairy. Many farms use antibiotics and growth hormones on their animals. These can have just has much, if not more of an effect than pesticides on your produce (and Kraft Dinner for that matter!) Cattle, for example, are often given a growth hormone to increase milk production. Like pesticides, these hormones have been linked to several cancers, as well as diabetes and hyperthyroidism.
Organic foods are at least monitored and certified. Labels like “all natural” are not currently regulated and do not carry the same guarantees as those that are organic. For something to be called “organic,” it must be made with at least 95% organic ingredients. Foods with less than 70% organic ingredients aren’t allowed to make organic claims, save from in the ingredients list.
Organic food is simply food made the way nature intended. Even if packaged foods are made of all organic ingredients, they are still processed in a facility far from your home and kitchen. There is something that just feels so inorganic about that process.
The organic phenomenon is just the latest in a string of marketing ploys that pull at the health conscious consumer. It’s also been seen with 100-calorie packs of foods like Cheetos, Oreos and Twinkies. Sure, portion control is great. But an apple is also a sweet, crunchy, portion controlled snack. Wouldn’t that be the healthier choice?
In the end, it always comes back to eating whole, fresh foods made at home. That is truly the healthiest way to eat.
Michael Pollan put it best, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
