Conventional vs. Organic (And what the heck does Natural mean?)

When I was originally rolling around the idea of Vie Balance, one of the subjects I was most passionate about was eating organically. I had been shopping at Whole Foods because they have the best selection of organic produce, meats, and other foods in our area. And despite your preconceived notions about Whole Foods and shopping organically, I was able to stay within our grocery budget. I was not buying the same amount of snack food and such which in the end was a good thing- less food sitting around the house waiting to be eaten when we got bored.

The biggest downside of shopping at Whole Foods was that the closest one is an hour from Purcellville, which meant with commuting time and time spent shopping, a whole afternoon was spent. Eventually, I stopped allotting the time needed to shop there and my organic shopping dwindled too.

Now, that I have gotten my blog started the flame has been rekindled to evaluate what and how my family and I are eating.

Why spend the extra cash to eat organic food? Why spend the extra time to prepare more meals from scratch and not from store bought packages, mixes, or kits? Well, we are what we eat right? I think so many of our health problems stem from what we are putting in our body. Doesn’t it freak you out when you look at the shelf life of some of the products you buy? No food was meant to last in your pantry for three years! Just think about what the manufacturers must add to it to give it that life expectancy!! I firmly believe that many of the conditions and diseases that plague us could be significantly reduced if we put better things in our bodies. And I am committed to try with my family.

How to start? If you don’t feel like you can commit to an organic lifestyle because you don’t have the store/options or you have a strict cash flow, or even sometimes you just can’t make it to the grocery store that has organic options, you can still take some small steps. You may have heard of the Dirty Dozen- a list of the 12 produce items with the highest pesticide residue. I think this is a great place to start, especially if these are things that you and/or your family eat regularly.

Another thing that confused me when I started looking at eating organically was what the difference was between organic and natural. You see so many items in the grocery store these days labeled as “natural” and you think “hmm that sounds nice and healthy…” but really a lot of times you might just be paying more money for the “natural” name. I recently read an article in Runner's World about organic food, and it had a great chart in it that I’ve reproduced below that explains the difference between organic, natural, and so on.

So this past Sunday, I dragged Hunter to Whole Foods and we loaded up on organic groceries- mostly things that I can use to make some meals before Baby Smith arrives such as Turkey Pumpkin Chili, Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna, Chicken Noodle Soup, and such- now if only I had a bigger refrigerator!