Moving to a more plant-based diet is happening more as word is spreading about healthier choices and people seem more and more interested in improving their diet. When buying more fruits and vegetables, one factor to consider is organic vs. conventional. The more conventional and mass farmed produce has become about the bottom line, and not as much about the health of the plant or the soil it is grown in. Choosing organic produce is becoming a more available option, but it still comes at a bit of a cost. Since prepackaged foods with low nutritional value are sold at such a low cost, moving to buying whole foods can look expensive, especially if you’re looking at organic pricing. One great tool to use to help balance this cost is balancing organic produce with conventional. The EWG (Environmental Working Group) puts out a list each year of foods that are the most heavily sprayed with chemicals during their growth. This is known as the Dirty Dozen. These foods can differ slightly from year to year, but you typically see the same in the top 12. These items are the best to buy organically. Just by switching these 12 foods out for their organic counterpart, you can drastically reduce your consumption of residual chemicals.
For 2020, the foods that made the Dirty Dozen list are:
1. Strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Kale
4. Nectarines
5. Apples
6. Grapes
7. Peaches
8. Cherries
9. Pears
10. Tomatoes
11. Celery
12. Potatoes
Another alternative for buying these items organically is finding a local farmer that is using organic practices but has not registered to be certified. This does require trust to be built between you and your local producer, but supporting farmers’ efforts to focus on healthier farming practices is a win win. Without the certification you can skip the added cost and it encourages the farmer to continue with their farming practices. If you do not live in an area to do this, finding a grocer in town that sells organic produce is the way to go. Anything at the store that is listed as organic must go through a certification process. This process is extra work and extra cost for the farmer, but as we continue to support these practices in farming, I am hoping to see a decrease in price. Our dollars spent at our grocery stores is what drives change in the industry. Even if you start with one part of your produce, you are telling the market to move away from conventional methods to more sustainable practices. It may take some time, but in my 10 years of buying organic produce, I have noticed a great increase in options and a decrease in price. Don’t have time to shop at another store for organic produce? There are some fantastic services that deliver! The one I have been using Mama Earth Organics, is a Toronto based company that has connected with local Ontario farmers to deliver seasonal organic produce to their customers. I have really appreciated this service as part of our food purchasing. Being able to set preferences, having some new produce options to try new things, and being able to customize your order if it ends up having too much of something that might be scheduled in your delivery. In our house it always seems to be bananas. I never have enough, or I have too many.
Clean Fifteen
On the flip side to the dirty dozen, the Clean Fifteen is a list of produce that conventional farming can grow with minimal or no major chemicals. So buying these in the non-organic section will help your wallet. These are the vegetables I tend to buy frozen. Most frozen fruits and vegetables are flash frozen soon after harvest, which helps maintain high nutrient levels. The trick with these ones is to try and use any water that you cook or steam them in. That way you don’t lose out on the water-soluble nutrients. For example the vitamin C in broccoli. This is where you can off-set your cost of organic fruits and veggies if you cannot afford to buy 100% organic. The foods on Clean Fifteen for 2020 are:
1. Avocados
2. Sweet Corn*
3. Pineapple
4. Onions
5. Papaya*
6. Sweet Peas Frozen
7. Eggplant
8. Asparagus
9. Cauliflower
10. Cantaloupe
11. Broccoli
12. Mushrooms
13. Cabbage
14. Honeydew Melon
15. Kiwi
*a small amount of sweet corn and papaya sold in the US (and imported to Canada) is produced from genetically modified seeds. Buy organic varieties of these crops if you want to avoid genetically modified produce (GMO).
Changing your buying habits around these foods can really improve the quality of food you are consuming and help reduce the exposure to chemicals in our bodies. Check out the links to the EWG website for their lists. Keep it with you while shopping, or change your list item to include organic for those foods you wish to switch over.
Happy grocery shopping!
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