In the past couple of years we have all experienced the rise in demand for organic foods. At the grocery store, every shelf in every aisle seems to have an organic offering for our favorite foods. From frozen burritos to chocolate milk, I know I am constantly having the internal argument that 50¢ more is totally worth the extra healthy goodness that organic provides.
There is no argument that organic products contain more nutrients than their counterparts, but are we getting our full money's worth of organic product in that box? Well it depends. I learned last week in Nutrition class that even though there are certain USDA standards a company must meet until they can label their product "organic," there are different levels of organic.
Surprising, right? You thought organic meant organic right? Well so did I, so I took a little field trip to Whole Foods to do some investigative journalism. Let's start off at the top and work our way down:
100% Organic
These products are rare to come by and it took me quite a while to actually find one in Whole Foods, but I finally came across this 100% Raw Organic Honey. These products must only contain organic ingredients, with the exception of water and salt.
Organic
Only 95% of the ingredients in a product labeled as "Organic" must be organically produced.
Made with Organic...
Now it starts to get a little tricky. Take a look at the box and notice that it says, "Made with Organic Grains." Now if I were to pass this in the grocery store and I saw the term organic, I wouldn't think twice about it. I mean organic means organic right? Well not really, a product like this is only required to have 70% of their ingredients be organic.
All Natural
What about food labeled as "All Natural?" That means it is better than organic foods, right? I don't know about you, but when I hear the term "All Natural," I think of chickens grazing on the country side and bushes of berries found on accident during a nature hike.
Well you see that isn't exactly true. The truth of the matter is that it is very expensive to meet the USDA qualifications and call your product organic. To save a couple of $$$, some suit in a boardroom coined the term "All Natural" and slapped it on the label. Now I am not saying these products aren't "healthy," I mean this cereal is clearly better for you than Fruity Pebbles (Not nearly as tasty), but it is good to be aware and know the difference. To sum it up, there are no regulations when it comes to All Natural products and any company is allowed to use it.
Touché Corporate America, I'm starting to catch on. Between cost, availability and now marketing, I am finding it harder and harder to actually eat healthy. A good way that you can ensure you are buying a truly organic product is to look for this symbol on the label. This shows that the product contains at least 95% organic content.
I take issue with your assertion that organic foods contain more nutrients. They may have less pesticide residue on them, but there is no evidence that they are any more nutritious.
ReplyDeletePaul, I believe the post says,
ReplyDelete"There is NO argument that organic products contain more nutrients than their counterparts"
(emphasis mine)
We've been buying organic milk for several months. Tastes great, and lasts MUCH longer than regular Publix milk. Not really sure why that is.
Question: How do you distinguish between something that is 100% and something that is, say, 95%?
@Paul - I held back writing a response right away, because I wanted to read into the subject a little more. What I found was a wide-spectrum of studies that either prove organic foods are 100 million times better for you than non-organic foods, or studies that prove organic foods have no additional nutritional content. I'll admit that I was wrong to make a claim that there is "no argument" because clearly there is.
ReplyDeleteAs for my own personal opinion, I agree w/ NerdFather that there are certain characteristics about organic food that shows me it is in fact better for me. For instance, compare cuts of organic beef vs. non-organic beef. Farmers provide better ingredients to their animals and it shows in the food.
Maybe that will be an article for later, comparing organic vs. non-organic against the different food groups. Maybe organic produce isn't that much better for you, where organic proteins are. Thanks for the inspiration!
@ NerdFather - It's all on the label my friend. If a product is 100% organic, it will say it on the label (although it isn't common to come across these products in the grocery store). If the product simply states that it is organic, it is safe to assume it means 95% organic.
ReplyDeleteAdam, I'd like to look further into this as well because the "organic" craze has been a huuuuge pet peeve of mine. I think (and this is my unsubstantiated opinion) it's just a big marketing ploy to sell a sub-standard product (i.e., smaller fruits, vegetables, etc.) at a higher price.
ReplyDeleteAlso, from a different perspective, some people buy organic because they think doing so supports local farms/farmers. However, most organic produce is grown on a few large farms in California and is then shipped across the US. This raises the price of the produce through shipping costs and contributes to CO2 emissions.
Finally, NerdFather, I find it interesting that organic milk lasts longer than its non-organic counterpart (I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just intrigued). It seems to me that, if I had fewer constraints on what types of additives I could put in my product-- like non-organic milk producers do-- I would add some sort of preservative. I'd like to see a MythBusters-style Organic vs. Non-organic milk competition.
This is a great discussion. :-)
ReplyDelete@Paul: I imagine there are many cases when companies are merely taking advantage of the organic craze. Fad + uniformed consumers = $$ I like the MythBusters idea, but we need to work in an angle where they blow stuff up. Not sure they'll test anything if it doesn't explode ;-)
Oh, and I totally agree on confusion between local grown and organic. There are even organic co-ops that ship in their crops. I frequent an independent grocer near my house that buys a lot from local farmers. They have pH balanced locally grown coffee that is fantastic.