Organic Foods And Your Budget

 By Caroline Shannon

  I am always looking for a bargain. But even more so, I love being able to brag about a great shopping steal. When people tell me they love my pants, it feels so nice to say, “Twelve bucks at Target-can you believe it?!”

And when it comes to food, my price preferences are no different.

But even thought I know that organic food choices are my best option, my pocketbook disagrees. The thing is I would love to be able to eat organic and keep it on the cheap side. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s better for you, it’s better for the earth-it’s a good deal all the way around.

Unfortunately, however, organic food can be pricey, and I don’t have the dough to always be buying grocery items of the luxurious kind.

So, you can imagine I was totally psyched when I saw a recent article on MSN that discussed the Top 12 Foods to Eat Organic.

According to the article, the most important items to buy organic are as follows:

Beef - According to the Environmental Protection Agency, meat contains higher levels of pesticides than any plant foods. Even though I don’t eat red meat, I just could not believe this one.

Milk - Hormones, antibiotics . . . ewww! Switch to an organic brand of the white stuff, or buy soy or almond milk.

Coffee - Buy Fair Trade beans which ensures that no pesticides and chemicals were used, and that farm workers were treated fairly.

Peaches - Forty-five different pesticides are used on these babies!

Apples - Organic apples are chemical-free, and taste sweeter-Yum!

Green Peppers - One of the most heavily sprayed veggies.

Celery - This green vegetable does not even have a skin to protect it from chemicals.

Strawberries - FIVE HUNDRED pesticides are used per acre of this fruit crop-need I say more?!

Lettuce - This leafy green is contaminated with what are considered the most powerful pesticides used on food.

Grapes - The fruit’s skin is so thin that even washing and peeling will not eliminate the pesticides that seep into grapes.

Potatoes - Idaho’s best are ranked the highest for pesticide residue.

Tomatoes - Chemicals will eventually saturate the whole tomato, again, because of the fruit’s thin skin.

This article really made me think, and I feel a bit better knowing my options. Unfortunately, at this point in my life everything I put into my body is not going to be organic; it just does not help to balance my checkbook! But if I can eliminate from my diet some of the very obvious sources of chemicals and not break the bank, then I will be happy with that for now.

So, do you think double-fudge, chocolate ice cream is organic, too?

 

 

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