Food safety and organics

I was reading my latest Family Circle magazine tonight (Sequoia's STILL at work!) and they had an article on food safety/nutrition. Jennifer and I were discussing it last week (and Erica, too?) This article addresses that and organics. Anyway, here are some highlights:

Fish/seafood: They say to avoid fish high in the food chain (shark, swordfish, albacore tuna and king mackerel) as they tend to have the highest levels of mercury. They recommend choosing farmed trout, shrimp, tilapia, wild Pacific salmon and haddock - especially if you are pregnant, thinking of being pregnant or have children under 3. The Sierra Club study found one in five women has unsafe levels of mecury - which is linked to neurological disorders and learning disabilities.

Meat (beef and chicken): As we would all think, steer clear of antibiotic and growth hormone treated animals. The antibiotics caused untreatable strains of bacteria to develop and hormones raise our risk of cancer. Plus, the hormones cause mastitis (infection of the udder - women can get it breastfeeding, too) and treatment requires more antibiotics (seems redundant and therefore unnecessary, huh???) and the (okay warning here for weak stomachs...) pus resulted from said mastitis can get into the milk. Okay, I am ill. To avoid milk from treated cows make sure it claims to be from cows not treated with rbST. Here's another incentive to buy local and from smaller farmers!! I have been buying at the very least the non rbST milk, but try to get organic when they have it in stock.

They also went on to explain some labeling used for meats:

Certified organic: manufacturers and farmers meet standards ensuring animals were treated humanely and not given hormones, antibiotics or feed grown with pesticides. This is also called USDA Organic and is a closely regulated designation.

Natural: meat and poultry is free from all preservatives, additives, and other scary chemicals. Labeling here is not strictly regulated so animals here could have been given hormones or antibiotics. Look for "certified organic", "hormone free" or "antibiotic free" labels for quality assurance.

Grass-fed or pasture raised: cattle grazed in outside pastures giving them more Omega-3 and vitamin E and less saturated fat. USDA is debating a defintion here and says to look into it further for specifics on how that particular meat was handled. (ie. talk to the butcher)

Free-range: chicken and other poultry had plenty of fresh air, sunshine and room to roam. No government approved definition, so this apparently could mean they were in a pen open to the air - look for "certified humane" or "free farmed" for quality assurance.

Fruits and veggies: As we are all quickly finding out, organic is not cheap. In fact, it can break our budgets! (After what I learned on chicken, I am going to be spending the cash!) The article acknowledges this and gives two lists - one of fruits and veggies you want to always buy organic, and the other where it's okay to go regular. The lists are based on the amounts of pesticides used (obviously, these are non-organic if pesticides are present). But, it's a way to help cut corners when needed.

Those they recommend going organic: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes (imported), spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.

Those they claim have very low amounts of pesticides used: onions, avacados, sweet corn (frozen), pineapples, mangoes, asparagus, sweet peas (frozen), kiwi, bananas, cabbage, broccoli, and papaya.

With that I am feeling very good about my organic spinach purchase today, but not so much about my potatoes (for some bizarre reason I have never really thought of organic potatoes).

In the beginning of Avery's solid food days, I was religious about everything being organic. I even made some of his food - not long lived! (you know, when I was pregnant, I had big plans for being a true "earth mother". A baby who wouldn't let you put him down will shoot the best plans down!) Anyway, I have guilt over not being so religious as time went on. I blame it on laziness of getting to a Whole Foods and being cheap. Well, a few extra dollars will be money well spent on our better health. And perhaps those higher food bills will force me to be less wasteful of the food. (I tend to buy something with plans for a recipe and then never make it only for the produce to go bad) Plus, with where we live now, I can walk to both Whole Foods (a bit of a trek, I'll admit) and to another market that offers a wide selection in organics (this one much closer, but again, the selection isn't as wide as WF).

Here's to better eating and shopping!