Question about organic products

[anamoly]

I've recently been making more of an effort to shop organic. Now my question is - what are some things that don't necessarily have to be bought organic? For instance, does it matter if your avacado is grown organically or not? Or how about Pineapple's or onions? The reason I bring up these specific examples is because I read the shoppers guide at http://www.foodnews.org/EWG-shoppers...load-final.pdf and I figured some of those foods might be OK to purchase non-organically.

The biggest thing I am debating really are chia seeds. I'm looking to place my first order for some Chia seeds and have found a good source for nonorganic chia seeds at reasonable prices - NutsOnline | Premium Bulk & Wholesale Nuts, Dried Fruits & Gift Baskets

I've read some literature that supports the theory that it doesn't matter if chia seeds are organic or not because bugs do not bother the chia plant and thus it is not sprayed, for reference:
From: Chia Seeds

Then, what about organic chia? I told him that I ran across a source of chia that purports to be certified organic.

Dr. Coates replied point blank, “There is no certified organic chia. That is another falsehood. But the chia is never sprayed with pesticides because insects never bother it. So there are never any chemicals on the outside of the seed. It is harvested with combines mechanically and it is mechanically cleaned. We don’t irradiate it; we don’t do anything to it. It is natural.”

So it seems like it's OK to buy regular Chia seeds and companies advertising that their Chia seeds are organic are really just stating the obvious, but not implying that they are USDA certified organic. Is this correct?

Anyway, you guys can use this thread to debate organic vs nonorganic. Where to buy the cheapest organic products? Is it important to buy organic cheese or organic nuts? What are you guys favorite sources for ordering Chia seeds? What kind of smoothies do you recommend making with Chia Seeds and Wheat Grass?

Hope this thread is of some value to some people!

[aelle]

Organic means no pesticides. For transformed or semi-transformed products, or products that you eat whole, it's preferable to buy organic. For instance, whole wheat flour or whole bread incorporates the outer layer of the grain which has probably not been washed off its pesticides. Same goes for soups, smoothies... Chia seeds sound like something that wouldn't be easy for you to wash.

Anything that you can wash properly or peel, you could buy conventional. Then it's a question of taste ; I know that in the EU conventinal and organic have comparably rich flavours, but I have memories of really bland and watery supermarket fruits and veggies in the US...

[mysticmadness]

I am also fan of organic products. It has much value in terms of their healing value and related stuff. I buy it from Organic Products - Teas | Tulsi | Supplements | Herbs | Fiber | Ayurveda which ship to both US and India. Green tea ia I always buy because of its medicinal value. I think 4 times a day it helps to detoxify your body.

[anamoly]

Originally Posted by aelle

Organic means no pesticides. For transformed or semi-transformed products, or products that you eat whole, it's preferable to buy organic. For instance, whole wheat flour or whole bread incorporates the outer layer of the grain which has probably not been washed off its pesticides. Same goes for soups, smoothies... Chia seeds sound like something that wouldn't be easy for you to wash.

Anything that you can wash properly or peel, you could buy conventional. Then it's a question of taste ; I know that in the EU conventinal and organic have comparably rich flavours, but I have memories of really bland and watery supermarket fruits and veggies in the US...

Well, in reality - according to the same link:

DOES WASHING AND PEELING HELP?

Nearly all the studies used to create these lists assume that people
rinse or peel fresh produce. Rinsing reduces but does not eliminate
pesticides. Peeling helps, but valuable nutrients often go down the
drain with the skin. The best approach: eat a varied diet, rinse all
produce and buy organic when possible.

In regards to the Chia seeds, the idea is that they are naturally organic because bugs do not bother the plant and thus there is no need to put any pesticides on it. Just FYI - stuff I found out from the past hour I've been researching.

However, I've come up with some new questions - I am trying to try wheat grass. The thing is - the wheat grass I have in my fridge is about two weeks old, but hopefully that doesn't make much of a difference. Here's the bad part. I have no juicer or a specific wheat grass juicer. I just have a regular old blender with two speeds, nothing fancy - probably pretty cheap but it's help up quite well.

I am trying to make a wheat grass smoothie, and so far the best advice that I've come across for doing this is: YouTube - Straining Wheatgrass from a blender - now to find the nutbag or juicer bag that he uses for the final step at the store.

Another solution is to use Fine Mesh Sieve, as originally posted by someone else:

I have blended wheatgrass many times and it works great. Pour the blend through a fine mesh seive and then squeaze the pulp by hand. The fiber will be perfectly white, no juicer does that good.

The trick for me now is to find some sort of juicing bag or whatever the hell it is. By the way, just for information: the site I ordered Chia seeds from was NutsOnline | Premium Bulk & Wholesale Nuts, Dried Fruits & Gift Baskets

They sell a bunch of other products and generally considered to be a good site that delivers promptly ( even rumored same day deliveries if order is placed before 3PM EST). The only qualm that I had about using this service was an $7.62 shipping fee on 4 pounds of stuff via UPS Ground. I'm complaining merely because I don't like UPS Ground because it seems to be the longest option available for delivery. It seems that USPS always beats out "Ground delivery services" available through either FedEx or UPS (more slower with UPS than FedEx imh experience).

Anyway, any tips on how to juice this wheat grass, aside from what I already have would be doubly appreciated. If anyone has successfully juiced wheat grass with a blender, I'd love to hear about your experiences as well.

[liamona]

Does anyone know about pesticides that are applied to the roots or ground? I've heard that certain plants are given this treatment, so the whole thing absorbs some amount of the pesticides. Obviously in this case, washing or peeling the skin won't help much.

[funchy]

One tidbit I wanted to add: I like organic -- all those chemicals sprayed on regular produce have to go somewhere: into our wells and aquifers, into the lakes we swim in, runoff into others' fields, and poisoning wildlife. Pesticides are one of the things harming honeybees, and honeybee numbers are dropping drastically. No bees = no fruit, organic or not.

[escapee]

It's not just about pesticide, have a look at the chart below for comparison of mineral contents.

why organic is better - just one example of many



Nutritional quality of organic versus conventional...[J Altern Complement Med. 2001] - PubMed Result

OBJECTIVES: To survey existing literature comparing nutrient content of organic and conventional crops using statistical methods to identify significant differences and trends in the data.


Organic crops contained significantly more vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus and significantly less nitrates than conventional crops. There were nonsignificant trends showing less protein but of a better quality and a higher content of nutritionally significant minerals with lower amounts of some heavy metals in organic crops compared to conventional ones. CONCLUSIONS: There appear to be genuine differences in the nutrient content of organic and conventional crops.

My conclusion : If you 're loaded, GO ORGANIC ..

[ginkgo]

In Russia it is illegal to grow foods that are not organic. If you do, then you are a criminal. Maybe it is time to outlaw this practice in America. When you buy organic, you are sending out that message. Oddly enough the most searched for health product on the internet is blackstrap molasses. A tablespoon of it contains 350 mg of potassium. But a tablespoon of the organic molasses has 720 mg of potassium.