Do you try to buy mostly organic or all-natural foods?

[ogreenlee]

Or do you buy what the coupon has in store that week?

My neighbors and I were at the bus stop last week and the discussion of girls hitting puberty at an earlier age popped up.

The discussion then went to hormones in milk, then onto chemicals in food.

We were all on the same page (I know there are those who don't believe the correlation between HFCS and other stuff being bad for human consumption), but then when I said that I buy organic milk and food products at about 80%, they laughed at me. They told me that they couldn't believe that I would "fall for that". They didn't even believe that the USDA Organic Certified meant anything.

Now granted.. there are a lot of companies out there who abuse the "organic" title, but I feel like I'd rather take a chance on organic than to not.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I buy what is cheap... BUT... I do purchase only Certified Angus USDA beef... don't know if that counts.

Also, if the grocery store has something like baby carrots on sale, and they have regular and organic on sale for the same price, I usually buy the organic.

I would NEVER spend the money on organic milk, but I have no issue with those who do, and I see the benefit. I used to work in food service along side the USDA, and milk is gross no matter how you buy it...

 

[dislaney]

I try to buy Organic whenever I can.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I rarely buy organic. I haven't seen good evidence showing that organics are worth the price differential.

 

[ogreenlee]

I happen to have an AWESOME Whole Foods near me, but it isn't called Whole Foods. It's Harry's Farmer's Market, but were bought out by Whole Foods. They are much bigger than the regular Whole Foods, and carry a lot more. They are expensive, though... but their veggie/fruit section is very big and contains a lot of local produce as well as organic.

I bought some All-Natural Marshmallows over the weekend because we built our first fire of the year, and watched Christmas movies with hot cocoa and roasted big marshmallows. They are so good!! Not like the Kraft kind you get in the grocery store. They have a homemade flavor about them.

We also buy our lunchmeat there because on the ingredients label it says: TURKEY, WATER, SALT. If you look at the ingredients label on Boar's Head.. it isn't that simple.

The neighbor ladies can laugh all they want, but when you've lost both parents to cancer by age 70 (one at 56), and three out of four grandparents to my DD have died of cancer... you take all the precautions that you can.

 

[Christine]

I think that "organic" has not yet been regulated properly for me to buy into yet. There are some problems there....

However, I definitely try to buy hormone-free milk (doesn't have to be organic), and grass fed beef and free range chicken whenever possible. Also, ideally I'd like to buy from local growers. That's not to say they are organic but small-scale farming where the food doesn't have to travel so far tends to use less chemical intervention than food grown for the masses.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I try to buy Organic whenever I can.

Us too. I also try not to buy anything where the ingredients are chemicals. We try our best to stay away from HFCS as much as we can too. Mostly we like to stick to whole foods but there are some things that we do have in moderation.

 

[ogreenlee]

I also find that when I buy organic.. it's not the organic that sells me, but mostly the fact that there isn't a big list of chemicals and preservatives in the ingredients a lot of the time. I try not to worry about organic, but look for all-natural.

I try to stay away from hydrogenated oils, HFCS, nitrates, etc...

 

[ProgressCity]

I mainly look at ingredient labels. We would love to have more choices but where we live right now it just isn't available. When we've lived in areas with organic choices we tend to go that route.

We do like buying from the local farmer's market. My great uncle actually has chickens and his eggs are organic and are truly free range. There is a BIG difference between his eggs and the ones in the grocery store.

Not all organics are created equal, so it is important to read ingredient labels and know the differences between the different labels and what they mean. Even if organics are not that much better, it's still a form of voting with your wallet and pushing industries in the organic direction, and an organic certainly won't be worse than a non organic.

 

[ogreenlee]

I mainly look at ingredient labels. We would love to have more choices but where we live right now it just isn't available. When we've lived in areas with organic choices we tend to go that route.

We do like buying from the local farmer's market. My great uncle actually has chickens and his eggs are organic and are truly free range. There is a BIG difference between his eggs and the ones in the grocery store.

Not all organics are created equal, so it is important to read ingredient labels and know the differences between the different labels and what they mean. Even if organics are not that much better, it's still a form of voting with your wallet and pushing industries in the organic direction, and an organic certainly won't be worse than a non organic.

i totally agree! i'm also in the camp of better to be safe than sorry. with the number of women getting breast cancer at what seems an alarming young age... and i know several men, including my father, who had pancreatic cancer at a young age, too. it's only been in our lifetime that food has been processed to death... literally. i just have a bad feeling about processed foods, and hope that it isn't too late for folks my age, but i'm going to make sure that i do the best i can to keep it out of my child's body as much as possible.

i'm not crazy-strict, but i do the best i can.

 

[pearlieq]

I try to walk the middle path. I buy organics when the cost is reasonable or it's really important to me to have organic.

I always buy organic milk. I like the dairy it comes from and I think it's important. I generally don't buy organic eggs--humanely raised and vegetarian fed are good enough for me.

I occasionally buy organic produce. I rarely buy organic packaged goods, and when I do my motivation is usually more environmental than health-based.

I try to avoid trans fats and need to start paying more attention to HFCS.

While I do try to make healthy choices, I'm never going to be one of those 100% clean living people. I love Oreos and Coke. I know I can't have them all the time, and I know the ones I do indulge in may shave a few minutes off of my life, but to me it's worth it.

I could live to 110 on organic tofu and greens, but to me it wouldn't be worth it. I'd rather make it to 85 and never turn down a piece of birthday cake!

 

[2bearsmom]

We also buy natural and/or organic. I've read that organic milk isn't worth buying because it's ultra-pastuerized and even more "dead". I had started buying raw milk from a local farmer over the spring/summer, then my ds was diagnosed with a dairy allergy so I quit buying it. Now he was re-tested and no longer egg or dairy allergic so it's back to the farm we'll go. I found a local farmer who sells grass-fed beef so we are going to buy a 1/4 quarter cow next year. Right now we only buy chicken from a local grocer who gets it from a farm where they are raised organically and free-range. About 3yrs ago we went through the pantry and threw out anything with hydrogenated oils or HFCS. The only thing I buy now that contains those two things are graham crackers. My boys eat them only occaisionally and we aren't that close to Whole Foods, where the organic ones were $5 for a much smaller box. The Back To Nature brand has good graham sticks though. I don't buy pop, I can't remember the last time I did, and we don't order it for the kids when we are out to eat.

I've stopped buying all pre-packaged cookies though, organic or not. To me just because a cookie is organic doesn't mean that it's ok to eat it, it still has sugar. My ds is tree nut and peanut allergic and a lot of natural products use nut flours so it's easier for me to make cookies homemade. I always buy organic yogurt though for the kids, until I start buying raw milk again and try making yogurt and kefir. I'm more concered about chemicals, fake sugars and colors than anything else. I try to buy organic produce though.

I use natural cleaning products, for home and for us. Dr Bronner's is a wonderful natural soap, I use it for a ton of different things so one big bottle lasts a really long time. I use coconut oil as an eye makeup remover and moisturizer.

Has anyone watched the movie/documentary Food Inc.? It was awesome, my dh and I already knew about the meat industry but seeing it first hand had such a huge impact on us. I wanted my kids to see it but we only had it for one night. The next morning I asked my kids where they thought meat/animals from the grocery stores came from and they both thought on cute little farms where the animals got to run around all day in the sun and go home to sleep in the barn!

I figure as long as we eat as healthy as we can at home, it's ok for the few times the kids eat out or eat at someone else's house.

Here is a great site for coupons and recipes and information for organic/natural products: http://www.mambosprouts.com/

 

[barneynshorty]

After a friend of mine told me that her family could taste the difference between organic and nonorganic milk, I thought she was crazy. So, I decided to test it out, and now I can taste the difference too. I figure if I like it better, then it's probably worth the price difference.

 

[charming23]

I buy organic when I can and usually have about a 50/50 mix of organic and non-organic in my cart.

I try to buy organic meats and certain veggies if I can but here organic dairy is just too expensive to buy.

 

[Pooh's Pixie]

I think that "organic" has not yet been regulated properly for me to buy into yet. There are some problems there....

However, I definitely try to buy hormone-free milk (doesn't have to be organic), and grass fed beef and free range chicken whenever possible. Also, ideally I'd like to buy from local growers. That's not to say they are organic but small-scale farming where the food doesn't have to travel so far tends to use less chemical intervention than food grown for the masses.

I agree. This is basically what I do...although my eggs are so organic, they come from my backyard (we have chickens!)

We also have a milkman who delivers local organic hormone free milk. To me, those and meat are the biggies.

 

[2binak]

We look at the list of ingredients more than the "organic" label. If the ingredients are natural and there isn't a ton of sugar or sodium, we buy it. If not, we tend to skip it. We also buy natural beef & chicken and "no hormones added" milk. DD's was fed nothing but organic babyfood. We just felt better giving her that than the regular babyfood.

 

[ogreenlee]

Graham Crackers!! What is up with that?!?! I always have to go to Whole Foods for my graham crackers, but I do buy the Back to Nature brand.


I'm waiting for Coke to go back to real sugar. Pepsi brought a real sugar product back to their line, but it will only mean that I won't feel as guilty when I indulge in my one coke a month limit.


I also worry about all the food colors. Going back to marshmallows... grocery store brands, I believe, have food coloring. Makes no sense to me.

 

[2bearsmom]

Pepsi throwback is supposed to be back for a week or two after Christmas if you need to stock up!

Marshmallows have red and blue dye in them I believe.

 

[ogreenlee]

Pepsi throwback is supposed to be back for a week or two after Christmas if you need to stock up!

Marshmallows have red and blue dye in them I believe.

not the kind i bought at whole foods over the weekend, and i have to say.. they are full of sugar, but yummy!! yummier than the grocery store kind that stick to your teeth.

 

[2bearsmom]

I was at Whole Foods in July and bought a can of their cola and a can of their ginger ale to try, I forget their store brand name though. The cola I was suprised as it had no caffiene and real cola nut and cane sugar, it was very good. As was the ginger ale, real ginger ale taste. I wouldn't buy it all the time but I'd rather have that on the rare occasion we would have pop than the Pepsi's and Cokes. Also for Passover the grocery stores sell the cane sugar Coke/pepsi.

Here is another interesting site with great reviews on gluten-free products: http://glutenfreefoodreviews.com/