Healthy Cooking- Starting With Organic Ingredients

Author: Craig Stanford

These days there are stories almost every day on the TV news and in the newspapers about food that has been recalled because of E. coli or some other contamination. This has spurred many of us to shop and cook more carefully for our families. If you want to take a step beyond buying just safe ingredients for your family's cooking, then you'll investigate truly healthy cooking with organics.

When I talk about organics, some people think that I'm just talking just about produce. That's not true; there are now organic versions of many animal products available also.

I advocate switching to organic ingredients for your cooking because most produce is sprayed with pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers, Animal foods can contain growth hormones and antibiotics.

The hormones can cause premature maturing of children. Also, it's a fact that bacteria are increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotics. Scientists say that one of the reasons that bacteriia have become so resistant to antibiotics is because of all the antibiotics in our food.

Before buying organic ingredients, it's normal for people to ask one or more of the following questions;

1) How can I replace my whole menu with organic ingredients overnight?

2) Won't I pay a premium for organic ingredients?

3) How can I determine that an ingredient that I'm looking at is a genuine organic?

The short answer to question #1 is, "you don't have to". I recently read a book by Kevin Trudeau called," Natural Cures (they don't want you to know about)". In it, Kevin recommends changing one ingredient in your meals at a time to organic until eventually all of your cooking is with organic ingredients. I experimented with this technique and discovered that the my family made the transition to organics a lot more easily then I expected. So far, everything that I eat for breakfast is organic and my other meals are made up of more than half organic ingredients.

The answer to question #2 is that unfortunately, organic ingredients usually will cost more. The number of people that buy organic products has increased, but the numbers haven't increased enough to cause economies of scale in the production and sale of of organic ingredients.

Even though organic ingredients cost more, there are ways to bring these costs down.

A good way to save money is to do as much shopping as possible at a farmer's market. Almost every town has a seasonal farmer's market. Some big cities even have a year round farmer's market. Prices are lower because you are buying directly from the farmer. Usually, you can only buy fruits, vegetables, spices and eggs at these markets, but you should be able to beat the non- organic prices in the supermarkets.

Another way to get your costs down is to shop at discount chains because many of them now have organic departments. Even the big guys like Wal-Mart have jumped on the organic bandwagon.

Another sure way to cut costs of your healthy cooking is to scratch cook more often. A good example is soup. Canned soup in the store usually has a lot of salt and other non- organic ingredients. Don't buy the package of chicken thighs. Buy an organic bird and cut it up yourself. Don't buy the salad in the bag. Whenever possible, don't cook your vegebles, instead steam them if you have a recipe that says that they should be cooked. Steaming them will leave in more of the vitamins and minerals than high heat cooking.

Remember, every time someone touches your food, it will cost more.

The answer to question #3 is simple. To know if an ingredient you're looking at is organic look for the label that says, " USDA Organic ". This means that the food has been certified by the USDA as being organic in origin.

This article has been meant to show you the logical starting point in your quest to provide healthy cooking for yourself and your family. In follow up articles I shall talk about such things as more reasons why you should buy organic ingredients and how to get refined sugar out of your cooking.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/healthy-cooking-starting-with-organic-ingredients-230788.html

About the Author:
Craig Stanford suffered a stroke in 1994. This event has caused him to research how he can achieve better health. He has put some of his research into the Healthy Cooking Guide. To read the Guide and read about other kinds of cooking, check out his website at:http://cooking-party.com/healthy

Healthy Children By Amy Todisco

Healthy Children

By Amy Todisco

www.greenlivingnow.com

Aren't there laws to protect our children from foods contaminated with toxic chemicals? Yes, but they aren't enforced. The Delaney Clause, found in Section 409 in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, states, "No substance found to cause cancer in man or animals may be added to food." Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency still allows many toxic chemicals into our food system. Why? Because they claim that the benefits outweigh the risks.

In 1993, two studies ("Pesticides in the Diet of Infants and Children", by the National Academy of Sciences, and the Environmental Working Group's study, "Pesticides in Children's Foods") gave us evidence that pesticides used in food production are dangerous to human health, most especially children. According to the book, The Safe Shopper's Bible, "both (studies) concluded that infants and children are at high risk for future cancers because of their exposure to carcinogenic pesticides, quite apart from neurotoxic, teratogenic, and other toxic effects."

There are several factors that make children more vulnerable than adults. First of all, the majority of pesticide studies are conducted using adult male bodies. Secondly, the pesticides are tested one at a time. Consider the fact that pesticides rarely occur by themselves, for instance multiple pesticides may be used on a fruit or vegetable. Pound for pound, children eat more fruits and vegetables than adults do. They have less detoxifying enzymes than adults, making it more difficult for them to break down the toxic chemicals in their bodies. They breathe faster and have immature organs. Their playing habits put them into contact with toxic chemicals more frequently (down on the carpet and pesticide laden lawn, or hugging pets doused with anti-flea and tick products, or wearing chemical collars).

At this time in history, following the events of September 11th, 2001, it is imperative that we do everything that we can to keep our children and ourselves healthy. The added anxiety, grief, and stress that we are all experiencing takes it's toll on our bodies. One way that we can counteract those factors is by eating whole (ideally local) certified organic foods.

Here are ten more reasons to choose certified organic foods:

1. Protect Future Generations
Children receive 4 times the exposure of adults for at least 8 widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. The food choices you make now will impact your child's health in the future.

2. Prevent Soil Erosion
The Soil Conservation Service estimates that more than 3 billion tons of topsoil is eroded from U.S. croplands each year. That means that soil is eroding 7 times faster than it is built up naturally. Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. In conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position while they are doused with synthetic chemical poisons and fertilizers.

3. Protect Water Quality
Water makes up two thirds of our body mass and covers three fourths of the planet. Despite its importance, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that pesticides (some cancer causing) contaminate ground water in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half of the country's population.

4. Save Energy
Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country's total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate, and harvest, all of the crops in the U.S. Organic farming is still based on labor-intensive practices, such as: weeding by hand, rotating crops, and green cover crops, rather than synthetic chemicals.

5. Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate
Many of the pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers that 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides, and 30 percent of all insecticides are carcinogenic. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms, including humans.

6. Protect Farm Workers Health
A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a 6 times greater risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers have risen an average of 14 percent a year since 1973, and doubled between 1975 and 1985. Pesticides poison an estimated 1 million people annually.

7. Help Small Farmers
Most organic farmers are small in scale and 48 percent gross less than $15,000 per year. Join an organic community supported agriculture (CSA) group, and/or purchase from organic farmers at farmer's markets and farm stands.

8. Support A True Economy
The price of organic food represents the true cost of raising healthy food. Conventionally grown food does not reflect the hidden costs borne by taxpayers, like hazardous waste disposal and cleanups, environmental damage, pesticide regulation, health insurance hikes, etc. In 1988, nearly $14 billion in federal subsidies were given to conventional growers. Why?

9. Promote Biodiversity
Between 1950 and 1970, the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop, year after year (monocropping), initially tripled farm production. The bad news is that this lack of diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. In an attempt to replace the nutrients and ward off the increasing number of pests, chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticide use has increased. In fact, between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have doubled.

10. Better Taste and More Nutrition
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen recently reported that organically grown produce has higher levels of nutrients, like vitamins and secondary metabolites (which are thought to lower the risk of cancer) as compared to conventionally grown produce.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amy Todisco is the owner and President of Green Living Now, LLC. She was the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit, the Consumer's Healthy Home Center (CHHC). CHHC was created to hire independent toxicologists to test a variety of household products for their potential inhalation health effects, and recommend the safest choices to consumers. Amy closed down the nonprofit to create the Green Living Now web store as she felt she could positively impact and inspire more people with the store.

Amy is also a professional life coach (Catalyst 4 Change Life Coaching) and is creating a group teleclass on several topics of green living, beginning with organic food on a budget. She's also created three green living ebooks that are going on sale by 8/1.

Contact Amy here: amy@greenlivingnow.com
www.greenlivingnow.com