On the Dr. Oz website, you can go into his TV show archives and find tons of past programs. On his Dec. 2nd/2010 show Dr. Oz asked the question: Organic Foods: Spend or Save? He looked at packaged foods, their relative costs and did taste test comparisons with members of the audience while pointing out the benefits of when to buy packaged organic foods.
Four Items on Dr. Oz's Organic Shopping List
1. Peanut butter- organic peanut butter does not use pesticides in the cultivation of the peanuts
2. Cereal- organic breakfast cereal does not use genetically modified soy or corn nor pesticides
3. Ketchup - organic ketchup has 2x the antioxidants as regular ketchup
4. Frozen Meals -more nutritional content.
On June 10/2010 Dr. Oz inquired, "What's In the Nation's Chicken?" In order to increase growth and limit parasite growth in the organs of chickens, anti-biotics and hormones are used to super-size the chickens and inorganic arsenic is used to prevent intestinal parasite growth in chickens. The FDA in the States allows the use of both antibiotics and something called roxarsone to be injected in chickens. It's a balancing act between benefits and risks to the consumer.
So when do you splurge and go organic? Dr. Oz on his Oct. 27/2010 show created three simple rules for when you should spend your green to go green.
1. When the skin is thin on fruits or vegetables then it is difficult to remove high levels of pesticides even after washing. Go organic examples: apples, strawberries, grapes, peppers, celery, pears, carrots and potatoes.
2. Go green with leafy greens. Examples: all lettuces and greens such as spinach and swiss chart.
3. Milk. In regular milk, not all the hormones and antibiotics are washed out before we drink it.
Where do you find the cash to buy organic when the piggy bank is dry?
Best advice is to keep a spending habits diary over the course of two weeks.
If you are blowing cash on take-out designer coffees, take-out lunches, the latest gossip magazines, a new pair of shoes (even though you own thirty pairs of shoes that you only have worn on one or two occasions), the latest electronic gadget (even though the one you bought seven months ago still works perfectly fine and meets your needs), seventy dollar anti-wrinkling cream, a couple of drinks on the licensed patio (a block away from your own deck or balcony), if you have got to get that new paint job done even though your current bathroom wall colour is liveable, if you purchase designer kids' duds that your little one will grow out of before it wears out..... could easily free up sixty to hundred bucks a week to buy some things organic.
I used to highlight my hair blond at a discounted hair salon every six to eight weeks. I went back to my natural colour and that is saving nearly one-hundred dollars every month and a half.
Take a closer look at your money in and your money out. Including the discretionary expenses that we forget to add up because it cost us pennies.
Or as the author of this blog (who drives a five year old, barebones non-descript, automatic car with roll up windows and manual door locks and,proud owner of a nine-year old cell phone), it is a question of priority if you have a middle-class income.
That being said, if you work for minimum wage, live below poverty level or are experiencing financial hardship, then the affordability of organic food may be out of reach. I have heard of investigative journalists who try to live off of food bank donations for a month and most of the food is canned or boxed, little is fresh and it is a challenge to make the food stretch for a week without going hungry.
My parents, former refugees from Latvia who have lived in Canada since the late 1950's pinch their pennies and grow their own organic produce every year in their garden.
One option is to grow your own organic fruit and vegetables by starting with a small garden plot in your own backyard. If you live in a high-rise, you can do container gardening on your balcony or windowsill. No green space near you? In the City of Toronto, you can rent out a city owned garden plot for a season.
Time to find our green thumb and find a way to make organic food possible and plausible in our lives!
To be or not to be organic? Make sense out of your cents. Take somethings that are "wants" out of your weekly purchases. Exchange them for some needs: organic food items.
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