Photo Credit: I-5 Design and Manufacture on Flickr.com
People often wonder what the difference is between organic and regular food, other than the fancy packaging and jacked up prices. The reality is that many of us don’t have a lot extra money and if we are going to spend it on organic food we need to know what we are getting in return. Here are some answers to a few questions many people have about organic food.
The first question naturally is – what makes something organic? Organic food is food that is farmed without the use of pesticides, antibiotics or genetically altered organisms. Ok that sounds great, but what makes that better? Organic food is made without the antibiotics and pesticides used in other foods that can lead to a number of negative health effects. If I’m going to spend the extra money on organic what great benefits can I expect to get?
Freshness: Organic foods tend to be more fresh, because by definition they can’t use chemical to perspectives them.
No antibiotics: All organic foods are grown and made without the use of antibiotics. Consuming antibiotics regularly in your food can cause you to develop allergies and build up resistance to normal antibiotics used for infections.
No hormones: Many non-organic farmers put give their animals hormones to make them grow faster and yield more milk. Thought these lead to higher profits for the farmers, it may cause negative side effects like the development of prostate, breast and colon cancer for consumers.
No pesticides: Pesticides are used to keep unwanted insects out of crops. While this is a good thing for farmer’s pesticides can have many adverse health effects on the endocrine, nervous and immune system. Children are especially vulnerable to these effects.
Not genetically modified: Many of today’s crops are genetically engineered to grow bigger and faster. Recent research has shown possible links between genetically modified foods and allergies, birth defects and cancer.
More nutritious: Organic foods are grown naturally without the addition of hormones, pesticides, or antibiotics, because of this they have they are more nutritionally dense.
