Why Organic Isn’t The Best and 4 Ideas That Are Better

Yup. You read that right. Organic isn’t the best.

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Now before all of my natural minded, health conscious friends start huffing and puffing, hear me out. I don’t think organic is the best BUT I am definitely not saying conventional products and GMOS are good.

I hear all the time from friends and family “oh yeah you eat only organic” or “well it’s not organic so it’s not really healthy”.

The truth is, organic does not equal healthy.

Organic packaged food can be almost as unhealthy as conventional packaged food. Is it a better option when facing a choice between organic or non-organic? Most of the time. Not all of the time.

So what is healthy?

Real food. Real food grown with natural principles and the least amount of ingredients.

And truth be told, the organic label is just a label. A government regulated label at that. It doesn’t tell you anything about how the food was made or grown, only that it passed certain government regulated requirements. Even organic labeled food can be grown with synthetic substances and a limited number of non-organic substances. (source)

So what’s a person to do?

Here are four ways to make sure you are getting the best food (and inevitably, health) for you and your family:

Grow Your Own: The number one way to ensure you get the best food for your family is to simply grow it yourselves. As much of it as possible. Not only will you get a great product but you will save money, learn something new and be that much more in control of your health.

When you pick your first tomato and taste it for the first time, you’ll swear you taste all the hard work and sweat that went into it and it will be glorious.

Even if you don’t have a ton of space or a yard at all you can grow a portion of your food. Growing in pots can be a great option for those with no yard, or growing a vertical garden can maximize space you normally don’t think of or use. Get creative.

Just start with something and work your way from there.

Buy Local: Talk to your farmers. Go to markets. Many farmers are willing to tell you how they operate their farm and what growing practices they use. Most small farms are not certified organic because it is expensive to get the certification but they may use all natural growing practices that are even better than the organic label. Also when you shop local it is cheaper and you support a local family. To find local markets you can go here or google your state.

Buy Real Food: If for what ever reason you can’t buy organic food the next best option would be to just buy real food. Real food is simply your fruits, veggies, meats, healthy fats and basically any food that doesn’t have ingredients. By sticking to real food, even if it’s not organic you are eliminating scary ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, MSG, preservatives and food dyes. Plus nobody really needs packaged food so you’ll get more nutritional bang for your buck by keeping it real and simple. Then I would encourage you to wash your food really well with something like this or this DIY version.

Read Ingredient Labels: I know, I know. Labels are boring. And tedious. And nobody wants to be the lady taking up all the time and space in the aisle at the store reading the back of every box (I’m totally that lady). But if you are going to buy packaged food the only way to really know what you’re getting is to read the label.

The smaller the list of ingredients the better.

If you can pronounce all the ingredients, you’ve got a winner! This is where non-organic may potentially beat out organic. If the label of an organic product is a mile long and has foreign five syllable words but the non-organic product has three easily recognized ingredients I’m probably going to go with the non-organic option.

Now I know some people would say just don’t buy packaged food at all. While I agree, and we personally don’t buy much that is packaged, I know that every one has to start somewhere and for some the idea of not purchasing any packaged food may seem overwhelming. But by starting with just looking at labels you are taking a step in the right direction.

When starting down the path to better health and wellness things can get overwhelming and discouraging with all of the conflicting information out there. I encourage every one who feels confused to just take it back to the basics and look at what nature provides.

And at the end of the day even if things don’t go as planned, rest well knowing you tried your best.

Tell me, do you grow any of your own food? Are you a notorious label reader? What is the most common packaged food that you buy? I’d love to hear your thoughts!