Organic Produce – Why and When You Should Choose It

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Let’s start with the actual definition of organic food. It’s agricultural foods that are grown adhering to a specific set of standards, and those exact standards can vary from country to country. However, generally speaking it means the foods were grown without any use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers.

Aside from the lack of chemicals sprayed on the produce, there are so many other benefits to choosing to eat organic.

• Foods tend to be fresher because without the use of preservatives, food can’t last that long

• There is a positive impact on the environment when organic farming practices are used

• These foods are GMO free (GMOs are plants whose DNA has been altered in a way that would not occur in nature)

This begs the question, “is it worth the extra money to buy everything organic so I’m not putting these chemicals in my system?”.

In short, no. Foods that have a casing or thick skin that you would remove before eating – these are foods you don’t really need to buy organic. Think about produce like avocados, corn, onions, pineapples, and cauliflower here.

But there are some foods that you should choose to buy organic if you can. Here, think of foods that you may eat the skin of or have very thin skin that chemicals could seep through. Produce such as strawberries, spinach, apples, kale, bell peppers and grapes are all items that you can try to choose first when you’re trying organic.

There’s lots of resources out there when it comes to choosing organic – we found this report by the EWG (Environmental Working Group) to be quite informative. It includes the dirty dozen (foods you should try to buy organic), as well as the clean 15 (foods you can buy non-organic).