While some people are making an effort to buy good quality organic products, many are still vary about spending the extra money or taking the extra time to find them.
If you are unsure if the extra time and money spent on organic foods is worth it, the next time you are in the supermarket and have the choice between organic and conventional foods consider the fact that 98% of your body’s 100 trillion cells are replaced from one year to the next.
So if you would like a healthy good looking body you need to give it healthy quality building blocks because there is no getting away from the fact you are what you eat. So read on to learn why organic food is a vital ingredient in keeping you healthy and looking good!
If you eat poisoned food you get poisoned as well!
You can only be as healthy as the food you eat and that’s becomingly increasingly difficult as the quality of the food we eat has decreased dramatically in the last 100 years.
At the start of the last centaury virtually all food would have been organic standard or even higher but today the quality of most of the non organic food we eat is sadly decreasing and decreasing.
Today lot of the animal meat that you find in supermarkets has been fed grains, to quickly fatten the animal, to maximize profits with no consideration for the consumer’s – your health. Grain feeding fattens the animals very quickly during the last few weeks of their lives.
But a grain fed diet is not natural diet for animals; cows, lambs etc. are meant to eat grass and only grass. Eating grains leads to an abnormal and unhealthy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the composition of the animal’s fat.
There is also a growing trend amongst Danish farmers to feed their animals especially pigs genetically modified (GMO) Soya. But if the pigs are eating the Soya and you are eating the pigs then this nasty GMO Soya is also getting into your body.
For more info on why you want to avoid modern Soya foods read this article: www.alun.dk/helse-myter-sandheder-soya.asp and see later in this article about the dangers of eating GMO foods.
But it gets worse, animals are also in many cases given hormones, antibiotics etc that are often unnecessary and farmers of non organic farms use chemical pesticides routinely which get eaten by the animals even if they are grass fed.
All these nasty chemicals get stored in the animals fat tissue and get eaten by you if you eat non organic meat that’s been exposed to them.
Furthermore oceans, rivers, lakes etc are also the dumping grounds for many harmful chemicals. Once in the water these toxins are absorbed into plants. Little fish eat the plants. Bigger fish eat the little fish. We eat the fish so you get the picture?
Our environment is polluted and as a result fish and sea food are often contaminated with dangerous heavy metals such as mercury, pesticides, toxic plastic residues etc. In addition farmed fish are fed unnatural fish food and often given dye to color them to make them look healthier. So that’s why you should never eat farmed fish and only consume fish 2-3 times per week.
Organic farming of fruits and vegetables differs from conventional farming in the methods used to grow crops. Where traditional farmers apply chemical fertilizers to the soil to grow their crops, organic farmers feed and build soil with natural fertilizer.
Traditional farmers use insecticides to get rid of insects and disease, while organic farmers use natural methods such as insect predators and barriers for this purpose. Traditional farmers control weed growth by applying synthetic herbicides, but organic farmers use crop rotation to control weeds.
The result is that conventionally grown food is often tainted with chemical residues, which can be harmful to humans. There is debate over whether dietary exposure to pesticides at levels typically found on food is dangerous, but experts say that consumers should use extreme caution.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 60 percent of herbicides, 90 percent of fungicides and 30 percent of insecticides to be carcinogenic (cancer causing).
Pesticides can have many negative influences on health, including neurotoxicity, disruption of the endocrine system, carcinogenicity and immune system suppression. Pesticide exposure may also affect male reproductive function and has been linked to miscarriages in women.
Aside from pesticide contamination, conventional produce tends to have fewer nutrients than organic produce due to the poorer soil quality. To give you a sense of how times have changed, you would have to eat forty servings of spinach today to equal the amount of iron found in one serving of spinach grown in 1950! This is because :
A. Most fruits and vegetables, (you know this with tomatoes) are picked green. Without a chance to sun-ripen, many of the antioxidants that protect you from cancer and cell damage don’t get a chance to develop.
B. Changes in the soil and commercial fertilizers wipe out important health giving trace minerals. When you grow vegetables in mineral deficient soil, the plant passes the mineral deficiency on to you.
So not only are modern fruits and vegetables lacking in health protecting nutrients they in many cases contain toxic chemicals sprayed on them by farmers using pesticides etc.
Therefore always buy food that’s grown locally if possible, such as farmers markets which are excellent and it also gives you the chance to ask the farmers how they grow and harvest their fruits and veggies.
Buy in season Danish organic food, due to increased customer demand supermarkets are stocking more and more organic foods but be careful of buying non organic food from other countries such as Poland, Spain, Holland etc who are know to routinely use lots of chemicals.
The health benefits of organic food
There is increasing research showing the health benefits of organic food. When comparing organic food to conventional food you find that:
A. Organic fruits and vegetables have higher levels of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, polyphenols and important enzymes. The more of these you eat, the better your health!
B. Organic plants contain higher levels of protein. Getting sufficient protein is important to maintain your muscle mass which in turn slows down the aging process.
C. Organic foods are also free of harmful pesticides and toxic chemicals. There is a mass of new information emerging implicating environmental pollutants, farming chemicals and food additives as the source of degenerative diseases, obesity, allergies and mental dysfunction.
D. From the ground up, organic farming is better for the environment as a whole. Organic farming is the way we survived for millions of years. Modern farming technology such as, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, are destroying our soils which results in destruction of the plants and animals that humans ultimately dependent on for our health and prosperity.
Eating more organic foods help you to burn fat
This may sound too good to be true but by eating more organic foods you will over time potentially be able to say goodbye to your love handles. Organic food will help you to loose fat by via:
A. As organic food contains more nutrients your body gets the nutrition it needs faster. So you in effect don’t need to eat as much food or calories to become satisfied. By eating less you will have a good chance of burning fat if you are also exercising and living healthily such as going to bed on time.
B. Non organic food contains dangerous toxins that get into your body when you eat the poisoned food. These toxins need to be stored in your body and the safest place to store them is in your fat cells. So the more toxins you store the more fat cells your body needs to produce to store them, so the fatter you become.
C. Organic fruits and vegetables contain higher levels of protein. Today most people don’t get enough protein from their diet, protein not only satisfies you more than fats and carbohydrates but it also provides you with the building blocks for your muscles. The more muscles you have the higher your metabolic rate and the more fat you burn all day.
Genetically modified GMO technology – scientific genius or Frankenstein foods
Technology has done many wonderful things for mankind in the last 100 years. Genetically modified GMO foods is, unfortunately not one of them. Creating these foods and eating them is playing with fire, nobody really knows the long term consequences.
Although they may look like “real food” nothing could be further from the truth. If you don’t believe me then eat some GMO corn and then look at your poo the next 48 hours when you go to the toilet. Here you will see whole pieces of the GMO corn as your body can’t digest it.
This is because your body doesn’t recognise it as food as it as not something you are genetically built to eat.
In addition the GMO promise of healthier, tastier foods, such as cancer-fighting tomatoes and rot-resistant fruits, has yet to materialize. So avoid GMO foods at all costs, the best way to do this is to read labels, if you see a GMO food as an ingredient then put that food back on the supermarket shelf. Don’t buy process packaged foods because 75% of packaged foods contain GMO ingredients.
Buy organic produce. Buying organic is currently the best way to ensure that your food has not been genetically modified. By definition, food that is certified organic must be free from all GM organisms, produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. If you do this consistently then you will be on your way to a fantastic body.
Taste the difference with organic foods
Organic foods are not only healthier for you but you can also taste the difference. Grass fed meat has a far superior taste than grain fed meat. In addition by eating organic fruits and vegetables, you’re more likely to find that the natural sweetness and flavor are so satisfying, that your cravings for desert, lessens considerably.
Where to by organic food
As the consumer demand increases supermarkets, especially Irma is giving more and more shelf space to organic products. Last year an organic supermarket opened up in Copenhagen and the number of specialist shops offering organic products is increasing in the bigger towns.
You can also buy organic meat and vegetables directly from farmers and a visit to a farm is not only a fun day out for all the family its also very educational for children.
The internet is also exploding with organic companies such as www.skagenfood.dk and www.aarstiderne.com.
A good resource for organic food can be found on www.kyskoen.dk.
Our family favourite is to buy meat from Slagteren ved Kultorvet www.kultorvet.dk, they simply have the best meat we have ever tasted. We buy our fruits and vegetables in Irma, as we feel they have the best choice and quality.
We supplement these good basic foods with treats such as Dagoba organic chocolate and some wicked spelt based cakes made by my wife. We eat and live healthily but also feel its important to live life to the full!
Conclusion
Organic food contains many more health giving nutrients such as vitamins and minerals etc than “normal food”, so you need less of it to get the nutrients your body needs. This has the added benefit of satisfying your hunger faster. As a positive side effect if you have to eat less food and therefore less calories to be full then you are less likely to gain fat!
Secondly there are the health benefits of eating healthily. How much is avoiding, diabetes, cancer or heart disease worth to you? Lets look at that another way, how much extra would you pay to have more energy, avoid getting sick and looking 10 years younger in the mirror! Organic food costs more, but isn’t the health of you and your family worth it?
Finally remember, when you spend a bit more to buy organic, you are not only doing yourself a favour, you are helping improve the environment. So go on give your health a boost buy more organic foods and taste the difference!
Tips to keep your body young, healthy and looking good
• Eat as much organic food as possible. Make sure the meat is grain fed
• If what you’re eating’s not meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds it’s probably not something you were designed to eat – so think before you eat!
• If you ancestors didn’t eat it 10,000 years ago then neither should you.
• Longer the shelf life the worse it is for you
• If you don’t understand a word on the label then don’t eat that food
• Avoid eating anything that has been genetically modified or genetically engineered!
• Never eat anything with “hydrogenated” fats” in it – it contains the unnatural deadly trans fats
• The more money companies spend to market any food, the worse it is likely to be for you! Good healthy food requires little marketing because people know it’s healthy. That’s why you never see healthy foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables or meat advertised on TV
• Look to your shopping carts and to your meals and ask, "Do I have a rainbow of colours here?" Fruits and vegetables with their antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber are some of the most powerful allies in the war against obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
• Follow the 80:20 Rule. Don’t be fanatical, if 80% of what you are eating is what Mother Nature designed you to eat. Then there is 20% left for fun!
Read more about the benefits of organic food on www.soilassociation.org
