When you head to the grocery store, shopping for products like eggs,
meat, fish,
milk, and produce can be very tricky. Signs are posted everywhere labeling food as natural, organic, and a number of other things—but what’s the difference, really? Learning what specific names mean can help you decide if you should shell out extra money on a product or if its simply a marketing ploy.
Natural is a term associated with a number of fruit and vegetable products. Typically, this is simply a marketing ploy to convince you to buy the product. After all, all fruits and
vegetables are natural, right? Unless it’s a new kind of food that has been developed and processed, the product is natural. What you really probably want is organic.
Organic foods are grown without chemical
pesticides and
fertilizers.
There are two main benefits to organic foods. First, you are helping the environment because those chemicals are not being introduced into nature. Secondly, you are avoiding ingesting chemicals and are therefore eating more healthy foods. However, organic products are usually more expensive. If you’re on a budget, skip over organic fruits and vegetables that you can peel, like oranges and bananas. After all, once you’ve discarded the peel, you’ve also discarded the chemicals. Instead, opt for organic items like apples, where you eat the peel. No matter what you buy, however, make sure that you rinse off the food when you get home.
Another tricky label you will see is “no hormones.” This is usually in regards to milk or meat products and is false, since all animals naturally produce hormones. Hormones are what helps an animal (even a human) regulate body organs, have young, and otherwise function. All meat products have hormones. What the labels really mean is that no hormones were unnaturally given to the animal, which is sometimes done to increase milk production. Regardless of hormones, however, the milk and meat is safe for a person and not a violation of an animal’s rights.
Lastly, a label on eggs and meat can indicate if the animal was caged or penned. This does not make a difference in the quality or nutritional value of the meat, but is simply a matter of animal rights. These products may be a bit more expensive, but if you want to make human decisions, that is the way to go. Reading the label and making healthy choices can sometimes be difficult, but learning how to do so can help you make the best choices for you diet.
How good are you at understanding labels? Do you read labels for every product you buy?
Mr. Bananahealth-and-fitness-buzz.blogspot
Comments (9)
I don't read labels for everything because I don't particularly care whether what I'm getting is organic or not. Plus there are plenty of tricks they can play, saying it's organic when they've secretly added some nice chemicals in there.
Contrary to popular belief, pesticides do not only exist on the outside of the fruit/vegetable, therefore it is not always the best solution to buy conventional produce with peels. Sadly, when soil and seed have been sprayed and sprayed, much of the chemicals get into the plant itself. There are lists available online like this one that indicate the amounts of pesticides in produce to help you make a more informed decision.
Also, I think you should have better explained about the eggs. For instance, the wording "Cage Free" is popular on egg cartons to sell more eggs, but oftentimes this is a worse or equally as bad option. Instead of one cage per hen, you have dozens in a larger cage cramped against each other, probably eating each others' poop and fighting each other, which means the animal has probably undergone some inhumane treatment such as debeaking. The best option for eggs is from organic, free-roaming or free range hens. If it is possible for you to buy eggs locally, I recommend this as well because your eggs will be fresher and last longer (about 3 weeks), instead of 1-2 weeks from the grocery store because they have had to sit during shipping and stocking.
This post reminds me of my high school biotechnology teacher and some famous words he has said that have always stuck to my mind when I read labels -- "The thing that scares me most about foods is when I read the ingredient panel and it lists 'natural flavoring.' Seriously, what is that?"
And, seriously, what is that? lol It gives you no information about what it is and where it is from. What type of flavorings are they putting in there and how is it natural. Does it come from a fruit? A chicken? A rock? lol
I'm pretty good at understanding tables.. I just don't read them for EVERYTHING that I buy. Even if I do read it, I don't care & still buy it =P
This helps so much. All of those glossy labels with the frilly adjectives are too confusing. D:
Actually, "organic" produce is grown with chemical pesticides. All natural pesticides like Rotenone and Pyrthrum, two substances which are known to cause neurological damage and carcinogenesis, respectively. And because these pesticides are so terribly inefficient, more of it is used than synthetic pesticides.
Technically speaking organic produce is actually worse for the environment. Due to the terrible inefficiency of organic farming more land is needed to produce the necessary amount of crops; in some cases this can even lead to deforestation. Also, as most organic farming is done in California, much of it has to be shipped a great distance to your local grocer. Carbon emissions anyone?
Yes I read all available labels, and yes I understand them.
@Strangebrain@xanga - not all organic produce is grown this way. i know several farms who use no pesticide whatsoever.
and organic farming bad for the environment? are you even serious? because it takes up for land? "organic" farming today used to be all farming, and the world was full of beautiful rich soil that hadn't been poisoned and deadened over time with chemicals.
if you knew more people who were serious about eating local organic, nutrient rich food, you would realize that much organic produce is actually bought locally, fresh from farms or farmer markets. so logically, if more people were growing organic produce, we would be using less energy and getting fresher food because we have less to travel.
@MrsOrganic - Personal credulity aside, most of the organic produce out there comes from a few farms out in California that do use these pesticides.
And yes, I'm very serious about organic farming being worse for the environment. Though it may have been the method of the past, it does require more land. When you consider the fact that the U.S. population has more than doubled between 1930-2000 it's easy to see the ecological advantage of conventional farming with respect to the amount of land needed to provide the needed crops.
The reason organic farms have richer soil has nothing to do with the pesticides being used. It's because of fertilization methods. Organic farming uses a shit-load of manure (pun definitely intended). While that seems good on the whole, it also increases the risk of bacterial infection, particularly E. coli. That's probably why 8% of e. coli infections come from organically grown produce, even though they only account for 1% of the total produce in the U.S.
As far as organic produce being more nutrient rich, there is no evidence to suggest that is true. In fact evidence shows that the nutrient content is the same. Nutrient content has more to do with genetics and it seems nothing to do with growing techniques.
Though the majority of organic farms sell their produce locally the majority of the produce that ends up at the grocery store is from California. One of the many reasons this is the case is because most states (like Mi for example) can not grow produce year round.
I agree that you should buy locally when it's available and affordable (if for nothing else to support local business). But organic farming techniques cost a lot of money (not only for the consumer but the farmer as well). This cost can often lead to consumers not having the necessary funds to get all of the fruits and vegetables they need.
I can see that you looked into this, but didn't do quite as much research as you should have. The hormones that are injected into cows (rBGH, or Bovine Growth Hormone) are injected in order to increase the production of milk to meet consumer demands. This is done on a massive scale, not only "sometimes". I can guarantee you that unless a vegan since birth or lactose intolerant, every American citizen has ingested bovine growth hormone.
So what exactly is wrong with this?
First of all, milk in general is not quite as healthy for us as we're told. We are the only species that drinks milk after infancy. It is genetically structured to help the development of whichever species it's produced for. In this case, it's cows. We, however, are human. Why would drinking the genetically structured nourishment for a completely different species be beneficial for us at all? It wouldn't. And even if it would, why would we drink it as adults?
Secondly, bovine grown hormone is extremely harmful. A short term effect of it is that if indeed there is any calcium content in the milk, it prevents our bones from absorbing most, if not all of it, so you are depriving yourself of calcium if you are relying on milk as your main source. It also thins the hair, makes your nails unhealthy, weakens and makes teeth translucent, and shows general signs of bad health. Milk advertisements in the past and present have shown quite the opposite- that it builds strong bones, gives you healthy, shiny hair, and even makes your nails smooth and shiny. Why would the government put out such ads? Well, the government benefits off of milk sales. It has also been said that milk helps to ease symptoms on PMS/menstrual pain and moods, when in actuality, it (or the bovine growth hormone, rather) aggravates menstrual/ PMS pains and cramping.
Long-term, bovine growth hormone has been proven to cause a multitude of different types of cancers (ovarian, breast, prostate, colon), anemia, heart disease, severe intestinal malfunction (Diverticulitis, Crohn's Disease, anyone?) , even Autism.
I'd do a bit more thorough research on anything you decide to buy because it's cheaper- or anything you decide to buy for ingestion in general.
Enjoy:
http://www.notmilk.com/